The Lost Potter
by GrayGryffindor
Summary: Harry travels back in time to the Mauaraders era. He teams up with the Order, using his knowledge of the future can they defeat Voldemort the first time around? Not DH compliant.
1. Chapter 1

Description: Harry travels back in time to the Mauaraders era. He teams up with the Order, using his knowledge of the future can they defeat Voldemort the first time around? Not DH compliant.

Disclamer: obviously I don't own Harry Potter. If I did Sirius would still be alive!

Chapter 1- Traveling Back

"Damnit, Neville was right." Harry thought to himself as curses started flying around him. He'd had a vision of Voldemort sending Bellatrix to Hogwarts to hide his most recent horcrux. So Harry, armed with his cloak and the Mauraders Map, apparated to the castle to sneak in behind her and steal it.

It was a never ending battle, the horcrux hunt. After the trio was unable to destroy the snake at the battle at Hogwarts, Voldemort vanished and began restocking his depleted supply. Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued to hunt them down the best they could. Ginny and Neville joined them after the battle, seeing as neither one had anywhere else to go. Augusta and all of the Weasleys except ,Charlie and Fluer, were killed in the battle at Hogwarts. Harry was grateful that these two had decided to come along. Over the 3 years since the battle, the Order suffered heavy losses. As did the Golden Trio, Ron and Hermione were killed about a year and a half after the battle of Hogwarts, and Ginny was killed not long after that. Leaving only Neville and Harry to hunt for horcruxes, and a few scattered Order members left to fight.

Using Harry's connection to Voldemort's mind, Harry was able to watch as new horcruxes were made, sometimes Harry was able to stay in the Dark Lord's mind long enough to see where they were hidden. Other times the duo wasn't so lucky. Tryng to find all the horcruxes involved a lot of guess work. They knew it was a losing battle, at this point they weren't even certain how many new horcruxes he had made, let alone where to find them! But they couldn't give up, so after every horrible bloody vision, the last two members of Dumbledor's Army, would bravely takeoff to destroy the newest artifact.

This time Harry had come alone. Neville was still recovering from their previous scuffle with the death eaters, where the two men barely manage to escape.

"Harry, don't go! You can't do this alone mate, and I can't put any weight on my leg! Please just wait till I can walk again and we will search the school together!" Neville pleaded as Harry packed his map and donned his cloak.

"That witch is mad! You'll be caught!"

" I can't wait Neville! It's not very often we see where he hides them, I can't let this one slip through our fingers" Harry replied.

" Just wait until we can search the castle together!"

"Neville! We could search that castle for the rest of our lives and never find it! All those hidden rooms and corridors, and if I'm right about where she plans on hiding it, we will never find it if I don't tail her." Harry argued back "I have to go now, there's not much time."

"Fine!" Neville agreed, unhappily, but he had to agree with Harry's logic. "Just don't come out from under that cloak!"

Harry had been caught, now he was dueling the crazed black haired witch in one of the old corridors, the school long abandoned.

He hated her. She had taken so much away from him, so many of his loved ones. Sirius, Mrs. Weasley, George, and Tonks.

A curse flew by so close to his ear

that he felt the heat from it. Laughing madly, Bellatrix fought harder, taunting Harry with all the loved ones she had killed.

"Does it get lonely? Baby Potter." She sang, in a voice one would use to soothe a child.

"Which one do you miss the most?" She cackled shrilly. "Is it the old red headed lady?"

More curses were sent his way, blasting into the stone behind him as he ducked out of their path. He sent back curses of his own, but they weren't able to penetrate her shield charm. Then she smiled, a disgusting, evil smile.

"I bet it's Sirius isn't it? Pathetic he was, disgra"

Harry, in a fit of blind rage, sent a cutting jinx straight at her throat. Cutting a single line from one side of her neck down to just above her collar bone. She froze in shock mid sentence and reached up to stop the bleeding. The necklace she was wearing fell, bounced a couple times and rolled over to Harry's feet. It was a simple good chain, holding a very odd looking gem. Bright red, it looked hollow, and was filled with some kind of dust, or was it sand?

With his wand still aimed at the witch in front of him, Harry reached for the necklace and picked it up.


	2. Chapter 2 Return to Hogwarts

**A/N: To my followers, I'm sorry about the false notification earlier today! This is my first fan fic EVER and I really have no clue what I'm doing! (Hope that's not too obvious! If so, then I hope that you enjoy my story enough that you keep reading anyway!) I Was trying to start this chapter and accidentally posted a blank page! Anyway, I think I'm getting the hang of this. I was so excited to see some feedback this morning after I posted the fist chapter last night! I did a happy dance the whole time I brushed my teeth! Well, here is chapter 2, I hope I did okay on the dialogue between Harry and Dumbledor. Hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 2- Return to Hogwarts

Harry picked up the gem of the necklace at his feet. All he could think of was everything he had given to this god forsaken war, his parents, his childhood, everyone he loved had been taken from him. Never taking his eyes off Bellatrix's unmoving body (he had been fighting this war far too long to make a mistake like that) he lifted the necklace up to his face. Suddenly the world around him started to spin, his feet were stuck to the floor and he could do nothing but watch the chaos unravel. It was almost like using a portkey but without the feeling of being hooked. Colors blurred and swirled together as the world around Harry kept spinning. Then it stopped, and when it did, the castle around him was just as he remembered from his school days. The windows were no longer broken, the lanterns were dimly lit, there was no evidence a devistating battle had ever taken place. There was also no body laying at Harry's feet.

Quickly, Harry grabbed his cloak and threw it over his self and took off for the exit. He had no idea what these Death Eaters were up to and he had no desire to stick around and find out. As much as he would love to take a moment and enjoy his victory over that crazy bitch, not even the idea of gloating over her dead body could keep him hanging around here longer than necessary. This was advanced magic he had just witnessed and he didn't care to find out who was powerful enough to be behind it.

Covered by his cloak, Harry took off down the now dimly lit corridor. He had snuck into the castle for different reasons over the last few years and even though he couldn't use the secret passages anymore, with his cloak it wasn't very difficult. The wards placed around the former school detected any person entering the grounds. It did not, however, detect an animagus. So as usual, Harry planned to walk to the edge of the grounds, transform, then apperate once he was a safe distance away. Before he could get to the end of the corridor though, he heard footsteps heading his direction. So as quietly as possible, Harry ducked behind a conveniently placed statue. As the footsteps grew louder, voices accompanied them.

"I can't believe Slughorn gave us such an easy exam!" A female voice exclaimed as the two rounded the corner

"Speak for yourself" the other voice replied "I completely failed the essay question about the uses of Murtlap tentacles."

"Oh well, I'm sure you did just fine on the rest of the test. I'm still so excited about Ravenclaw winning the House Cup this year! I just knew Gryffindor was going to best us at the last second!" The excited female voice declared.

"Me too! I've been nervous all week! But thanks to all the points those four idiot boys lost as punishment for turning all the Slytherin team's hair scarlet, Gryffindor was never going to catch up!" The other student happily declared

Gryffindor... House Cup... Harry thought to himself, extremely confused at the conversation he was over hearing. Then he chanced a peek around the statue and saw two students, probably sixth years, walking down the corridor. Harry silently reached into the pouch Hagrid gave him so long ago and pulled out the Mauraders Map.

"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." He wispered, his wand touching the old parchment. As the map revealed itself Harry's jaw dropped. There were people everywhere! He was completely surrounded! Where did all theses people come from? Five minutes ago he and Bellatrix were the only two people present and now the castle was swarming! Were they looking for him? Had she pressed her dark mark while Harry wasn't watching? As he looked at the map though, no one was moving very quickly. In fact some people were in the dorms not moving at all, like they were asleep!

Harry scanned the map, in the headmaster's office Dumbledor was pacing! He saw Professor McGonagal making rounds, and upon further inspection of Gryffindor tower Harry's heart dropped into his stomach. There, running around the common room were the names of Peter Petigrew, Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin!

Harry's breath caught in his throat. What the hell is going on here? His mind seemed to have stopped working as he watched the names of his father, godfather, and uncle run wildly about the common room. They seemed to be playing keep away from Sirius, the other three ran around the perimeter of the room and Sirius ran wildly between them. Stopping just before he got to one and heading quickly in the direction of another. He looked down at the necklace still in his hand. The sand inside it was gone. Now the inside was completely hollow. Was this some kind of time turner? He looked around the floor to make sure the sand hadn't spilled onto the floor but there were no cracks in the stone to cause a leak.

Unsure of what to believe or who to trust, Harry crept down the corridor hugging the wall. He kept going until he reached the Staff room, there he silently opened the door and slipped inside. Relieved to find the room empty, he scanned the tables until his eyes landed on the papers sitting next to the window. He walked over and looked at the date printed on the top of the Daily Prophet.

June 27 1977

"Merlin's balls" Harry said. Too stunned to worry about being quiet. He looked back down at the necklace still in his hand, he stuffed it into the pocket of his trousers and headed towards Dumbledor's office.

Standing in front of the griffon guarding the door Harry cast his patronus, sending a message to Dumbledor and praying the old headmaster believed him. A few moments later the griffon moved aside and Harry stepped onto the moving staircase.

Upon entering the office, Harry came face to face with the Elder Wand.

"Professor!" Harry breathed, seeing the name on the map had not prepared him for seeing his dead mentor in the flesh.

"I may be old, but I'm not so old as to forget a former student. And I have never taught you." Albus replied while eyeing the scarred and dirty man in front of him warily. Wondering why the man addressed him as such.

Harry, who upon having a wand pointed at his face had aimed his right back at the eccentric old man, did not back down. "I know we are at war sir" Harry began "I'm going to ask you a question and if you answer correctly, I will surrender my wand and explain everything as best as I can."

"And if my answer is incorrect?"

"Then you are not Albus Dumbledor." Harry answered, the threat of "and I will kill you." Didn't need to be spoken, Dumbledor could see the seriousness in the young man's face.

"How many feathers did Faux give to Mr. Olivander"

Dumbledoor's face remained impassive but the question was truly one that he was not exepecting. He didn't know anyone was aware of that beside Olivander and himself.

"Only two." Albus replied.

Harry was still a bit skeptical, he would not hand over his wand unless he was completely convinced the man in front of him was Albus Dumbledor.

"Let me see your patronus." Harry politely demanded and the headmaster produced a silvery Phoenix.

Harry lowered his wand and handed it to the headmaster. "I'm sorry but I had to know it was you."

Albus nodded as he took the young man's wand and gestured towards the chairs in front of the desk. Harry walked in and had a seat. Dumbledor sat behind his desk, leaned back in his chair and pressed his palms together under his chin. Looking at the young man in front of him, Albus noticed how tired and dirty the black haired man looked. He looked as if he hadn't had a shower or a decent nights sleep in quite awhile. A long scar ran from under his left ear across his neck and disappeared under his shirt, his bright green eyes were filled with grief and confusion.

"Sir, is it possible to travel decades back in time?" Harry asked still not believing the predicament he was currently in.

This time Albus was not able to keep the surprised expression off of his face.

"Time travel is very rare magic my boy. Traveling back in time more than a few days has never been recorded, there are several theories but it has never been successfully accomplished." One of his eyebrows twitched towards his hairline. "That is until now, if I am to guess correctly?"

"My name is Harry James Potter, I was born to James and Lily Potter on July 31st 1980." Harry said, his face begging Albus to believe him.

Albus barely hid his smirk at the name of the man's parents

" less than half an hour ago I was dueling Bellatrix Lestrange in the ruins of Hogwarts. This fell off when I hit her with a cutting hex." Harry held up the necklace and handed it to the headmaster, who then began to examine the new artifact.

"When I picked it up... It was... It was almost like a portkey only... Only my feet were firmly planted and everything around me... changed. I don't understand what happened." Harry struggled to explain what had happened.

"Tell me Harry, did anything about the necklace change after you landed in our time?" Albus asked, noticing the hollow center of the gem.

"It was filled with some kind of sand. I mean, it looked like sand but it moved more like a liquid."

"May I keep this for study?" The headmaster asked, turning the necklace over in his hands.

"Of course Proffesor"

Albus offered his thanks and promised to keep the young man informed on his findings.

Suddenly Harry's eyes widened with realization. "Proffesor I know how to defeat Voldemort."

Albus looked at the man over his half moon spectacles. This man was full of surprises. Resting his forearms on the surface of his desk, the headmaster leaned in giving Harry all of his attention.

"Horcruxes sir, Voldemort has created multiple horcruxes. Right now he has five. His goal is to make six, he believes splitting his soul into seven pieces will make him immortal."

The proffesor's eyes widened at this statement. Then he replied.

"I'm saddened to say that this information does not surprise me, I knew Tom was very involved in the deepest pits of dark magic. I must ask how you came across this information?"

"You, sir." Harry said "you realized what he had done and you told me. We even went together to destroy one in my sixth year."

"Your sixth year? Why did I share this information with a 16 year old and allow you to accompany me on a potentially dangerous escapade?" He questioned Harry skeptically.

"Because" Harry said bitterly "I'm the Chosen One."


	3. Chapter 3 Meeting the Mauraders

Chapter 3

The next several hours Harry spent in the headmasters office. Starting from the prophecy and ending with his duel with Bellatrix, Harry told his former headmaster the entire story. Dumbledore wore a grave expression after hearing everything the boy said about the future. Surely this couldn't be, good always triumphs over evil. Doesn't it?

"I have memories" Harry offered. "They have never been tampered with. If you have extra viles, I will leave them for you." He was desperate for his old mentor to believe him.

"I believe that would be an excellent idea my boy." Dumbledore replied as he turned to fetch the required vials. Harry smiled at the old man's endearment. It'd been years since Harry had heard the phrase 'my boy' and he vowed to never take it for granted again.

After filling the vials wth his memories Harry looked Albus in the eyes. "I'm going to change the future sir, I don't care what you say. I have to stop this war before it starts. I will save as many lives as I can this time around."

"I must say that I agree with you. The future you described is not one we can allow, not when we have such a fool proof way of stopping it from happening. However, I must ask that you keep your origin a secret, we will think of a cover story to explain your sudden presence but I believe the fewer people who know the truth, the better."

Harry was very surprised to hear that the headmaster agreed with him, he was not however, surprised to hear that Dumbledor wished to keep his time travel a secret. Harry was all too familiar with the way Albus kept certain pieces of information to himself.

They talked a bit longer about plans and cover stories, then Dumbledor offered a room to Harry for the night and Harry was all too willing to accept a hot shower and a bed.

Meanwhile, in Gryfindor tower the Mauraders had made their way up stairs to their dormitories. Sirius was sitting on his bed sulking while trying to fix the muggle record his friends had broken earlier. They had taken it from him and made a game of refusing to give it back, it broke when James tossed it to Remus, only Remus didn't catch it. He had misjudged the distance and it landed on the hardwood floor and cracked off a chunk. He wasn't really angry. It wasn't one of his favorites, he just wanted to see if he could guilt them into buying him a new one.

"James" Remus called, breaking everyone out of their daydreaming. "Who is Harry?"

"Harry? You mean Harold Buker? The fifth year hufflepuff boy with the large nose?" James asked, putting his hand on his nose in a beak shape in an effort to get his point across. This guys nose was huge!

"Ha! What's old _Beaker_ up to?" Sirius laughed seeing the map open in Moony's lap.

"No not him. Harry Potter?" Remus repeated, looking at James for an answer. James didn't have a large family, and he had never mentioned a Harry.

"I don't have any relatives named Harry." James said while walking over to his friends bed to get a better look at the map. "must be a fluke." He suggested

"The map doesn't make mistakes James, you know that." Remus rolled his eyes. "Someone with the name Harry Potter has been in Dumbledore's office for the last few hours.

James turned his questioning look towards Sirius.

"Don't look at me mate! I don't know the Potter side of the family, your Grandma was blasted off the tapestry remember?" Sirius shrugged and got up to look at the map as well.

"Look! They are leaving the office!" Peter said, drawing everyone's attention back to the map and away from the drama of the Black family. "We should go check this guy out."

The Rest of the Mauraders agreed, after all they had all been thinking the same thing, Peter was just the one to suggest it. So grabbing the map and James' cloak, Peter transformed into Wormtail and the boys snuck down to the west wing of the fifth floor corridor.

As tempting as the shower was for Harry, the bed was more so. After placing a quick scourgify charm on himself, Harry happily settled into the large bed on the far side of the small room. With his wand under his pillow and his pouch from Hagrid securely around his neck, Harry layed his head down on the pillow. Soon Harry drifted off to sleep, only to be quickly woken up by the sound of his door being opened.

It was very quiet, but living the last four years on the run as wizarding Britian's most wanted criminal tends to heighten your senses. Tensed and ready for action, Harry slipped his hand under his pillow and firmly grasped his wand. The door opened a fraction and he heard the soft sound of something scurry around the floor. It was quiet for a moment then it went back out the door. Confused, Harry silently got out of bed and slipped behind the door.

He could hear voices.

"He's sleeping!" One vaguely familiar voice said "the bed is on the far side of the wall!"

"Alright, let's sneak in, surround this guy and see if we can get some answers." A different voice answered. They weren't very quiet. Harry wasn't sure who was after him, but his first instinct was to assume Death Eaters had followed him into the past and now they wanted answers as to how they got here.

'Damn can't a guy get a break!' Harry thought to himself. The first chance he has to get a good nights rest, he gets stalked by the loudest bunch of Death Eaters in the Dark Lord's army!

With his wand ready, he watched the four of them file into the room with their wands raised and pointed at the bed on the far side. Before they even had the chance to realize the bed was empty, Harry attacked. Jumping out from behind the door, he grabbed the one closest to him while shutting and locking the door behind him. The one he grabbed screamed and tried to fight but Harry quickly disarmed him, he shot a wide _expelliarmus_ at the other three effectively disarming them, he reached up with his wand hand, with the precision of a seeker, and caught their wands. Keeping his other arm tightly around his victim, using him as a human shield, he dropped the four extra wands on the flour behind him and pointed his wand at the side of his prisoner's head.

"Don't move." Harry said slow and menacingly. The four intruders quickly complied

"accio deluminator" Harry called and caught the small lighter in his wand hand, quickly opening it and lighting up the room.

When the room was lit, Harry's heart felt like it would beat out of his chest. Standing there in front of him was his father, his uncle Remus, and Peter Petigrew. They looked so young, Peter was thin and had all his hair, Remus had long, shaggy, sandy colored hair that hung past his ears. Nothing like the short gray hair Harry was used to seeing. Harry just stared, opened mouth and eyes wide at his father. He looked exactly as Harry had a few years ago. He was fairly tall, broad shoulders, with messy black hair. The only difference was the eyes, well not anymore, now the differences were more pronounced. Harry had been through hell and it had taken its toll. Harry was now covered in scars, he was very skinny, and needed a shave. But had Harry been healthy and not disfigured by battle,the eyes would have been the only dfference.

"Please" Remus held up his hands in surrender "let him go."

"Moony?" Harry breathed, just barely above a whisper. No one heard him except for Sirius, and that was because Harry's cheek was pressed against the side of Sirius's head.

"Hey! How do you know that name?" Sirius said angrily "who are you?"

Startled by the voice of his godfather Harry quickly spun Sirius around to get a better look at him.

" Sirius!" Harry exclaimed, looking into the man's face for the first time in years.

"Do I know you?" Sirius asked, seemingly unfazed by the fact that only moments ago, a wand was held to his head.

Harry let go of Sirius and James quickly grabbed him and pulled Sirius to his side.

"Oh bloody hell!" Harry practically screamed in frustration. He looked at his watch. "Six hours! Only six bloody hours I've been here, and you lot come charging into my room!" He started to pace back and forth, running his hands through his hair messing it up even worse than it already was. This wasn't a coincidence, did they know who he was?

"How did you know I was here? Do you even have any idea who I am?"

"Yes!" James fired back "you're Harry Potter and I want to know where you came from! There's no one named Harry in my family!"

Harry smacked his head with the palm of his hand "The map! Of course! I thought you lot would have lost it to Filch by now."

"How do you know about that?"

"what do you know about the map?"

"Who the bloody hell are you?"

"How do you know all this?"

All four of the boys shrieked at once. Obviously disturbed by a stranger knowing one of their secrets.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me, and you wouldn't believe me if I told you who I was." Harry said rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll just have to obliviate you... I'm sorry."

"You can't do that!" James yelled "why won't we believe you? Try us!"

"No!" Harry said firmly "It would take too long to explain, I'm tired, and I'm not in the mood to answer your questions."

"You can try to obliviate us but we will see you on the map again tomorrow and come back!" Remus argued.

"Fine." Harry was absolutely exhausted, he was in no mood to put up with all this. "I mean it's not like I could make the future any worse by telling you!" Harry said, more to himself than to the four standing in front of him.

"The future?" Remus looked confused.

"oh what the hell" Harry decided, messing up his hair even more. "Yes I am from the future."

The four boys eyed him skeptically

"In the future, Hogwarts is abandoned. I was dueling Bellatrix in what was left of the school when one of my hexes hit her, cutting off her necklace." Harry's eyes held a dark satisfaction when he replayed that moment in his head. "A gold chain with a red gem, when I picked it up, it was like it activated. Next thing knew, Bella's body was gone, the castle was back to normal and students were walking around the corridor." Harry looked right at them, not caring if they believed or not. He was too tired to give a damn. If they believed him, great, that would make keeping them alive easier. If not, then he would just obliviate them and work behind the scenes.

"You killed Bellatrix?" Sirius asked excitedly

"Really?" Remus turned towards Sirius "That's all you took from that?"

"A necklace sent you back in time?" James asked, obviously not believing a word of this story. "Let me see it."

"Is it really so hard to believe that a Black family heirloom held magic capable of illegal time travel?" Harry shot back "Proffesor Dumbledore has it, I just spent the last four hours explaining everything to him and giving him my memories."

"And Dumbledore believes your story?" Remus asked

"He questioned me with veritaserum." Harry stated. That seemed to appease the four of them, veritaserum couldn't be faked and if the most powerful wizard in Britian believed this story, who were they to question it.

Sirius looked a little guilty but just shrugged his shoulders. "What did the necklace look like?" He asked Harry.

"The chain is very thin gold. The gem is about the size of a galleon and filled with a type of dust or sand, but the sand behaved more like a liquid."

"That's my aunt Cassiopeia's necklace!" Sirius said excitedly "I used to shake it around when she held my on her lap as a child."

"They allowed a child to play with a dark artifact?" Peter questioned, obviously stunned at the lack of parental supervision at the Black house.

Harry tried not to curse Peter on the spot. 'He was good at the end, there is something in him worth saving.' Harry had to remind himself.

"So who exactly are you?" Remus asked. Looking from Harry to James, he was pretty sure he new exactly who this guy was. Harry took a deep breath and looked around the room. Conjuring a few more more armchairs, and sending a spark that ignited the fireplace he invited them to sit down.

Once everyone had a seat, Harry took another deep breath. "My name is Harry James Potter, I was born July 31st 1981."

Stunned silence followed. James jaw dropped, Sirius reached over and pushed Jame's chin back to its proper place. Harry couldn't look directly at James. It was ridiculous he knew, but he couldn't deal with the possibility of his father not accepting him.

"This is impossible." James whispered. Mild panic in his voice, he knew it was true though, this guy looked just like him! Messy hair and all. "Prove it." Though James had no idea how to prove such a thing. But Harry stood up and reached into the pouch around his neck and pulled out the invisibility cloak. Once again, every jaw dropped.

"That's mine! How did you get that?" James came out of his chair pointing his finger at the cloak in Harry's hand.

"No, yours is in your pocket." Harry pointed at the bulge in James's pocket. James pulled his cloak out as well. Examining the two side by side.

"How do we know it's not just another invisibility cloak?" Peter asked

"Because there is only one Death Cloak." James answered sincerely.

"So this really is fashioned from Death's own cloak?" Harry's eyebrows raised in surprise. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry noticed Sirius looked as if he was saying something but Harry couldn't hear him. Remus and Peter looked distressed but Harry didn't pay much attention, he was too interested in learning the truth about his only family heirloom.

"Of course not" James said as if it were common knowledge. "Our ancestor, Ignotus Peverell and his brothers created the Deathly Hallows. All for the same reasons they asked for them in the fable, Antioch wanted power, Cadmus for his lost love, and Ignotus for practicality. Before his death Ignotus explained the story and cloak to his son and passed it on to him. Ever since then, the true tale of the Hallows can only be discussed between father and ssss..." James started to stutter as the realization hit him.

"I didn't know that." Harry said thoughtfully

"you didn't?" James asked. But before Harry could respond they both noticed that the other three men in the room seemed to be very distressed. "What is the matter with you all?" James demanded.

"Bloody hell! We've only been yelling at you both for the last five minutes!" Sirius practically screamed.

"You two acted like you couldn't hear a word we said!" Peter exclaimed

"And we couldn't hear a word either of you said after Peter asked you his question!" Remus said, finally returning to his chair.

Harry had no idea how to explain this phenomenon but James seemed to be expecting it.

"It's true, he really is my... son." James sat forward in his chair, gripping the arm rests. "There is a story behind the cloak that can only be discussed by fathers and sons of the Potter family... we were talking about it."

"Wow prongs, I had no idea!" Sirius sat back down, calming down a bit. He had been afraid that this stranger had cursed James and that he would never hear his best friend again.

"I want to know why you didn't know the real story! If you're my son and I gave you the cloak, I should have told it to you then." James accused.

Harry suddenly couldn't find his voice. He looked down at his feet, feeling more like a small child than a grown man. "Because you didn't give it to me."

"What? That doesn't make any sense." James voice became a bit shrill so he cleared his throat. "If I didn't give it to you then who did?"

"Dumbledore, for Christmas during my first year. He told me that it had belonged to you and that you would've wanted me to have it." Messing up his black hair, Harry sank bank down into his chair.

"I don't understand, why did Dumbledore have it. And what do you mean _belonged_?" But the look on his face said James understood exactly what Harry meant.

"Harry?" Remus began "Is this the first time you've met your father?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Harry simply nodded.

Three of the Mauraders looked horrified, James was stunned, he'd never imagined not living to be an old man.

"How did... does... it happen?" James asked,

Harry's glare flickered over to Peter, sitting next to Remus, on the sofa. He shook his head.

"You can't handle it." Harry said, his voice full of emotion.

"We are at war here!" Sirius yelled, the thought of his brother dying was more than he could handle. "If you know something, you owe it to us to tell us!"

"I owe you!?" Harry screamed right back. "Why does every bloody wizard in Britian think I owe them! Do you know what all I have given to this war!" Harry's voice became hysterical. "Trust me Sirius! I know damned good and well we are fighting a war! It has taken everything from me! My parents! My childhood! My finial year at Hogwarts!" Harry stood and began to pace the floor, the pain of the last few years finally broke through the surface.

"It took you from me when I needed you most! It took the closest thing I ever had to a mother!" Harry couldn't stop the tears and to be completely honest, he didn't really care. Still screaming, he continued "It took you Remus. It took both my best friends and Ginny!" Harry's voice cracked and his fists slammed into the wall when he said Ginny's name. He took a few deep breaths, trying to collect himself. He felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked over to see James standing behind him.

"We can save them, with your knowledge of the future we can stop their deaths. We can change things."

Harry took a deep breath. "I plan to." He smiled at his father and he turned back around to face them. "Listen, it's the middle of the night, I haven't had a decent night sleep in years, come back tomorrow after breakfast and I'll tell you everything." He promised.

The others agreed, and made their way out the door. Peter decided to make a run to the kitchen before heading up to the dormitory. James had no idea how Peter could think about food at a time like this, but pulled out the map and handed it to him anyway.

About 30 minutes later Peter came barreling through the door of the seventh year boys dorm.

Seeing the look and on his friends face, Sirius jumped up. "What happened Pete?"

"Filch!" Peter replied "he came out of nowhere! I...I..I ran away but I dropped... I dropped the map!" He hung his head.

"I closed it before I left the kitchen, but Filch confiscated the Map!"


	4. Chapter 4 Secrets Revealed

Chapter 4 Secrets Revealed

Right after breakfast the next morning, the four Marauders knocked on Harry's door. When the door finally opened, they were greeted by Harry who had his wand raised.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Harry said, not fully being able to shake off the routine of war.

"How do you know about that?" Sirius loudly exclaimed while pointing his finger.

"Mischief Managed." Said Remus as he pulled Sirius back by his collar.

Harry lowered his wand and apologized for the greeting but didn't try to explain exactly how he had picked up that habit back in his own time. They had a pretty good idea of just how bad the war progressed, it was obvious to the four of them that this man had been in the thick of it. If his actions were not enough, one look at his body, and there wouldn't be a doubt in your mind.

Harry had obviously just gotten out of the shower, he was wearing muggle sweatpants and had the towel draped around his shoulders when he'd opened the door. But after the four had come in and sat down, Harry picked the towel up from his shoulders and continued to dry his messy black hair. When he did, all four pairs of eyes widened.

"Bloody hell! What happened to you?" Peter asked as he got an eyeful of Harry's back. Remus opened his mouth to scold Peter for his lack of tact, but as Harry turned to face them, Remus's eyes locked onto a scar on Harry's shoulder and suddenly the words left him as he stared.

"What? My back?" Harry asked, trying to look over his shoulder at the scared and mangled skin from a serious burn that had healed.

"I got that trying to shield my best mate from fiendfyre." Harry then turned around, towel still in hand. Giving them a view of his torso from the front. Harry had a long scar running the length of his right forearm, 'I must not tell lies' was carved into his left hand. He had two scars running parallel to one another, the first starting from under his left ear and ending just above his collar bone on the right side, the other starting at his left shoulder and ending at his rib cage. In his left forearm someone had crudely carved the word BLOODTRAITR, but the set of scars that Remus couldn't look away from, were the ones on Harry's left shoulder. There was a vicious bite mark and a set of scars as if claws had dug into Harry to hold him down while he was bitten.

"Merlin's balls!" James muttered. What all had this guy gone through? He looked almost as mad as Alastor Moody, just give him a fake leg and a flask.

"What the hell happened there!" Sirius gestured toward the word cut into Harry's arm.

"My friends and I were caught by snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor." Harry began as he sat in an arm chair next to his father. "Bellatrix was there and she thought we stole something from her... She was trying to get information out of us." He seemed to shake himself as if to shake off old feelings. "The blade was poisoned to create more pain and to leave a scar. The least she could have done was spell it correctly." He said bitterly, mumbling something under his breath. James caught the words "sadistic bitch".

"you really hate her don't you?" Sirius noted. This wasn't the first time Harry had spoke of her, always with malice in his voice.

Harry looked into the face of his godfather for the first time in years. "you have no idea."

"Why?" Peter asked "because of what she did to your arm?"

"No... My arm I can live with" Harry started, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. "She killed a lot of people who were like family to me."

"One of us?" Asked Peter

"My godfather." Harry said as he looked back to Sirius, who was sitting next to James on the sofa.

"Me? I'm your godfather?"

"Well technically not yet.." Said Harry. James just smiled at the thought of his best mate being the godfather to his child, then he remembered that he died when Harry was very young and Sirius actually had to fill in for him as a parent.

No, not this time! James told himself. They wouldn't let it happen that way, they would stop it before it started.

After the initial happiness of realizing James named him the godfather of his firstborn son, Sirius remembered what Harry had said.

"So cousin Bella did me in then?"

Harry struggled to keep his emotions in check, but being here with all of these people he loved that he thought he would never see again, it was hard not to tell them everything he wished he could've back in his own time, now that he had the chance. But these weren't the same people. This Sirius barely knew him, this Remus had never mentored him, this Peter wasn't a traitor, and his father! It was very hard for Harry not to wrap his arms around the man he never knew, and just pretend things hadn't happened the way they did. Not this time though, Harry promised himself he would keep these people alive. That meant being honest about his past.

"It was all my fault" Harry hung his head as he started the story. "Voldemort tricked me into believing he was torturing you, that he was going to kill you if you didn't give him what he wanted. I couldn't lose you! Not after I had just found you!" Harry stood and walked toward the fireplace, reigning in his emotions. "We broke out of Hogwarts and flew to the ministry, my friends and I. By the time we realized you weren't actually there it was too late... the order found out what we had done and you came with them to rescue us, it turned into a battle and well... She got the better of you. I tried to get her back though." Harry pleaded with Sirius. He was always secretly scared that Sirius blamed Harry for his death. "I followed her into the atrium, but my cruciatus wasn't strong enough at fifteen, and I couldn't find it in myself to kill her back then."

Although they didn't understand all of what Harry had said, the four listening to this story weren't sure what was more surprising, the fact that Harry and battled death eaters and cast an unforgivable at fifteen. Or the fact that this battle had taken place in the ministry. James was heartbroken at the idea of his fifteen year old son watching his godfather be murdered, after already losing his parents.

Harry had turned his back to Sirius and James after he finished his tale. he couldn't handle the idea of Sirius blaming him, even though Harry knew it really was his fault.

Harrys behavior didn't go unnoticed by Sirius, or the others for that matter, it was obvious that Harry cared deeply for Sirius and that he blamed himself for the man's death. "Well it sounds to me like you and I were close." Harry nodded, so Sirius continued "If you were willing to risk your life to save mine, I'm sure I would have been willing to do the same."Harry turned around to face him at this. "I know I'd give my life to save anyone of these guys, I imagine I would do the same for their children." Sirius looked at Harry and saw the relief in the man's green eyes. Green eyes that Sirius realized looked very familiar. Harry only smiled and nodded at his godfather.

Harry turned toward his chair and sat back down across the coffee table from Remus. Remus's eyes locked onto the scar on Harry's shoulder again. That's a wolf bite. Remus thought to himself, he started to panic. How was James's son attacked by a werewolf? No.. It's a little to rounded to be from a wolf, but then again it was very similar to his own scar...he thought maybe it was when he was young. Young... Remus thought, how old was Harry when James died? No! Don't jump to conclusions he told himself. But he didn't have to wait long for an answer to his unspoken question.

"So how did I die?" James asked, surprisingly confident considering the words he had spoken.

"I'm not sure I should tell you." Harry replied, his head in his hands again.

"Why not?" James argued "you told Sirius!"

Harrys eyes flicked briefly in Peter's direction. "I don't know if you can handle it."

That was all it took for Remus secure his guilt in his mind.

"I knew it!" He yelled, more than a hint of panic in his voice. "I killed him didn't I?" He looked toward Harry who was very confused but able to shake his head. "James could handle dying in battle like Sirius, or protecting his family, but what he couldn't handle would be being killed by his friend!" Remus was pacing the floor now, pulling at his hair.

"What are you talking about?" James yelled back at his friend "you don't know what happened. Don't jump to conclusions!"

"Look at him James!" Look at his shoulder! Does that scar look familiar?" All three sets of eyes locked onto the scar in question and their eyes widened. They hadn't noticed that one earlier.

James heart dropped to his stomach. His son was a werewolf. Not that this bothered him, he just knew what Remus went through and he didn't wish that on anyone.

"You're a..."James stuttered

Harry stood and shook his head again, but before he could say no Remus went off again.

"yes he's just like me! I created him!"

"Wait there's something wrong with that mark, it doesn't look exactly like yours" Sirius interrupted

"It obviously happened when he was young! When James died! I killed James when he tried to protect you didn't I?"

"No! That is not what happened!" But Remus wasn't listening.

"I need to see Dumbledore! Turn myself in before any of this happens!"

"DAMNIT MOONY LISTEN TO ME!" Harry yelled, grabbing Remus by the shoulders and spinning him so that they were facing each other."I'm not a werewolf, and you didn't kill my father!"

Remus finally settled down. Harry released his hold and motioned for Remus to sit. "Just sit for a minute ok?" Remus nodded and sat.

"I was bit by a werewolf, but not during the full moon."

"Why would they do that?" Remus looked extremely confused. "They must have been in control of their mind if it wasn't the full moon.. Who would..?"

Harry interrupted "Fenrir Greyback." Remus paled a little. Sirius got up and moved to sit on the arm of Remus's chair. They knew who had bit their friend, they also knew that Remus occasionally had nightmares about the man.

"I don't know what he is like now" Harry began "but in my time, he's worse than Bellatrix. He embraces the wolf so fully, that the only difference in him during the full moon is that he transforms into a wolf. He is violent and blood thirsty, and he only answers to Voldemort."

It was quiet as the others took in this information.

"so you're not a werewolf?" Remus whispered

"No, the bite did cause some attributes though." Harry informed them.

"Really?" Remus asked, obviously intrigued by this. "Like what?"

"Well" Harry began, obviously relaxing a little. "I have an incredible sense of smell, which comes in handy seeing as my eyesight is so poor." He sent a mock glare in James's direction at this last statement, James smiled sheepishly back. "I have a taste for rare steaks, and an inclination towards pack mentality. Also my animagus form changed."

"fascinating" said Remus, leaning forward in his chair, trying to soak up all this new information.

Harry just laughed. "That's was exactly your reaction in my time."

Remus was a bit surprised at this, this was the first time Harry had mentioned anything about Remus from his time. Remus wasn't sure if he and Harry had a relationship in Harry's past. But the nostalgic look on Harry's face said that they had, and that Harry missed it.

"So you're an animagus?" James asked. He wasn't sure of what other secrets of theirs that Harry knew.

"Yes, I didnt master it as early as you lot did though." Harry smiled, answering the unasked question.

"How did your form change after you were bitten?" Sirius asked.

"Well I never fully transformed before I was bitten, but I would have been a raven." Then Harry started to laugh, an infectious laugh that sounded like bells. Sirius recognized this laugh immediately and shared a knowing smirk with Peter who had apparently also caught on. "One time" Harry continued, still laughing. James didn't recognize the laugh like the other two, but he couldn't keep the smile off of his face at seeing Harry laugh. "Neville came back into the tent from keeping watch and found me covered from head to toe in black feathers!" The other three laughed at the mental image. They had no idea who Neville was, but they were remembering the times they had found one another in similar situations. "After I was bitten, transforming came very easily, but of course now my form was a wolf. It came in handy though." At this Harry looked a bit guilty "after Voldemort took over the ministry, they set out traps during the full moon. They said it was to catch unregistered werewolves, but they were really just after you."

"Me?" Remus asked, surprised by the idea that he would be so high on the Dark Lord's wanted list.

"Yes, you see I was the most wanted criminal in wizarding Britian, and seeing as you and your family were the closest thing I had left to family, they were after you all to get to me." Harry confessed, unsure of how Remus would take this news. While Remus from Harry's own time never blamed him, he wasn't sure this Remus would react the same.

Remus just nodded, the other three smiled at each other. Then everything Harry had said finally sank in.

"Wait!" Remus's head shot up. "I... I had a...a family?"

Harry smiled warmly at Remus. "Yes. A brilliant wife and the most beautiful baby boy I have ever seen. You uh... You actually.. made me his godfather.."

Remus just stared at Harry. Was he lying? He didn't seem to be.. And why would he? "Who is she?"

"No! I will not tell you!" Harry replied stubbornly "I will not ruin the surprise, or risk ruining the relationship altogether!"

Sirius and Peter shared another smirk, the stubborn tone of voice reminded them, again, of a certain green eyed witch. Apparently though, they were the only two to catch on.

"I will tell you though, it took a lot of convincing to get you to agree." Harry smiled reminscently "then, when you finially agreed, you almost worried yourself into a fit thinking Sirius wouldn't approve!" Harry laughed at the memories.

"Why did I have to approve?"

"Because you were Lord Bla..." Harry finally realized he had said too much. He was too comfortable around them, he would have to be much more careful.

"I BECOME LORD BLACK?" Sirius practically screamed in horror.

"well.. technically yes. But you don't get to do anything with that title because, at the time, you were... kind of... the..Uhhh... most wanted wizard in Britian." Harry finished sheepishly, runnng his hand through his hair.

"you're timeline is extremely confusing." Sirius replied, he hadn't really calmed down, he just wasn't yelling any longer.

"wait... wait a minute!" Remus interrupted "if I have to have approval from Lord Black, that means I marry a daughter of the House of Black?" Remus sounded a bit panicked but before Harry could respond, Sirius erupted into a fit of laughter! Muttering something about werewolves defiling the family tree.

"Ok, this is getting difficult to keep straight!" Said James who was also smiling about the idea of Remus marrying a daughter of the House of Black. "Can you just start from the beginning and tell us everything you can.

Harry took a deep breath, "okay, I'll tell you the whole story."


	5. Chapter 5 Telling the Story

**_A/N with a Disclaimer thrown in! I'm attempting to keep Harry close to OC but, as I AM NOT JK ROWLING, my Harry will be a little different. He will be more gray than light (he's been actively fighting a war for several years, so I want him to be a little hardened) I hope I am conveying that clearly in this story. Anywho... Enjoy_**!

Chapter 5 Telling the Story

Harry took a deep breath. "I guess I should start by explaining the Order."

"You mean the Order of the Phoenix?" James's face brightened a bit, finally able to understand something Harry was talking about.

"Oh you already know of it?" Replied Harry

"Our friend Frank Longbottom told us." Said Sirius "he joined after he finished school last year."

"We've been planning on speaking to Professor Dumbledore today actually, since the train leaves tomorrow." James seemed very excited to do something he deemed worthwhile.

"Well you do join, all four of you." Harry looked at his father. "In a few years you marry my mum and move to Godrics Hollow."

Before Harry could start his next sentence, James interrupted. "Ok I've got to know! Who is she?" His face was hopeful but Harry just scowled at him.

"I'm not going to tell you for the same reasons I wouldn't tell Remus!" Harry retorted.

James looked miffed but Peter and Sirius started to laugh.

"Honestly Prongs? You can't tell who is mum is?" Sirius just shook his head, laughing.

"Even I caught on!" Peter smirked "it's pretty obvious" he looked at Remus who looked as confused as James. He'd been so caught up on deciphering the story behind Harry's shoulder scar, he hadn't noticed.

"Merlin Pete!" Sirius howled with laughter "Moony hasn't figured it out either!"

"Grow up! This is serious!" Harry growled at his godfather, and immediately realized his mistake but it was to late.

"No! I'm Sirius! And this is funny!" He drawled out. His bark like laughter at his own joke ringing through the room.

Harry pulled an exasperated face and rolled his green eyes. That was all it took for the realization to hit Remus, who hit himself in the face with the palm of his hand, dramatically falling back into his chair. "Oh bloody hell!" He cried.

"Moonys caught on!" Peter declared happily.

"What?" James whined "that's not fair! How do you all know? I don't get it!" He did not like being left out of the joke. Sirius just laughed even harder at his brother's petulant behavior.

Just then, Harry sent a stern, green eyed glare towards Sirius who immediately stopped laughing and looked mildly guilty, mostly amused, but still a bit guilty nonetheless. James's eyes grew wide. There was only one person who was able to silence Sirius with a look.

"There you go Prongs." Remus smirked

Harry looked thoroughly exasperated.

"Don't worry kid" Sirius said "James has been determined to marry her since third year, he'll be sure you're born." Sirius ended with a wink. Harry couldn't help but laugh at his godfather's antics.

"Merlin I've missed you Sirius.." Harry said, shaking his head. Sirius just beamed at him.

"Lily Evans is going to have my baby!" James yelled, jumping up out of his chair and throwing his fist in the air.

"Lily Potter" Harry corrected. "Technically." He added when all four looked towards him. James continued to dance around the room and Sirius smirked at Remus and stuck out his hand. Remus huffed, rolled his eyes and gave Sirius a galleon, much to Peter's amusement. Harry just watched them all, drinking in their happiness. Thinking this is how it would have been if war hadn't torn his life apart. Not this time. I can change it. He thought to himself.

Finally, the four boys calmed down and looked toward Harry expectantly.

"Like I said" he continued the story. "You all join the order, you and Lily marry and move to Godrics Hollow. Not long before I was born though, a prophecy was given to Dumbledore." Harry's face became grave "He was interviewing a woman for the Divination Professor position when she had a vision... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.. born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the dark lord knows not..." Harry stopped to take a breath. "And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

"You..?" James whispered. Harry nodded.

"You have to be the one to kill him?" Sirius looked pale

"Yes. That's what started this all. One of his death eaters was there eavesdropping. He only heard the first two sentences though. That a boy would be born at the end of July to parents who had fought and escaped Voldemort three times. That description fit another boy, Neville, the one I mentioned earlier. He is Frank and Alice's son. They, and the two of you went into hiding immediately." Harry paused "but there was a traitor in the Order."

"Remus" Harry continued "you were spying on the wolf packs for Dumbledore."

The other three stiffened, they did not like the idea of their brother putting himself in danger like that. "Because you were gone so much, some people suspected you."

James looked angry at the idea of Remus being accused of such a thing.

"Sirius, some people suspected you simply because your last name is Black."

James looked even angrier. Sirius and Remus were none to happy either, but Peter looked as if he knew what was coming. In fact he did know what was coming, he knew the Dark Lord couldn't be defeated, they could fight all the wanted but they would die trying. Peter had an idea though, he thought if he could become a trusted follower, that when the time came, he could have some sort of pull with the Dark Lord and convince him to spare their lives.

"Have you heard of the Fidelius charm?" Harry pulled Peter from his thinking.

None of them had heard of it before, so Harry gave them a quick explanation and continued with the story.

"Remus, you were gone at the time so, Sirius, they planned to use you as secret keeper. They told Dumbledore that they would use you, but when the time came, you all agreed it was to obvious of a choice and decided to use Peter..." Harry trailed off and Peter's face paled even more.

"I was the traitor... Wasn't I?" Peter questioned quietly.

"Pete.." James started to admonish him but was interrupted by Harry.

"Yes" Harry simply stated. Not meeting anyone's eye.

"No!" James disagreed, "Pete isn't a traitor! He wouldn't do that! He would never sell me out!" He was becoming very angry and Harry began to understand how Peter fooled them the first time.

James looked at Harry in disbelief, but he saw no humor in his future son's green eyes. He looked over at Peter, heartbreak evident on his face. "Why?" But Peter couldn't answer, he opened his mouth, but nothing came out. None of the Marauders could speak, their brother would betray them? Not Peter.

"You told me why." Harry spoke up. "Right before you died, the same day I got this." He motioned to the word BLOODTRAITR carved in his arm and Peter felt like he would be sick. He had allowed James's son to be tortured? He felt like a coward, unworthy of his Gryffindor heritage. "You thought you could keep them safe, convince Voldemort to spare them when the time came... but you couldn't. He is a very advanced legilimentist, he knew you were the secret keeper." The other three were shocked, Peter just hung his head.

"Voldemort came alone," Harry continued. "I.. I remember... Well I suppose I don't really remember, but whenever I am attacked by dementors, I relive what happened that night." Everyone, except Harry who was used to things like this by now, looked horrified.

"Whenever?" Sirius questioned Harry "as in more than once?"

"Yes, I'll explain that more later."

"So... You remember us dying?" James couldn't imagine living with the memory of his parents being murdered.

Harry nodded "You and I were in the living room when you saw Voldemort coming, you yelled for Mum, handed me to her and told her to run."

James felt cold, Sirius sat with his face in his hands, Peter and Remus were both pale, but Harry continued.

"Because you had been holding me, you hadn't grabbed your wand.. when he came through the door, you tried to fight but..." Harry voice trailed off. "Mum couldn't apperate because of the wards. She put me in the crib and stood in front of me. He told her to move... that she didn't have to die but... but she refused to move." Harry's voice cracked a little at this, he cleared his throat and continued. "So he killed her to get to me"

"She saved you..?" Remus whispered, realizing what Lily had done.

"Yes" when the others looked confused, Harry started to explain, but Remus beat him to it.

"It's rare, very old magic." Remus began, usually his friends would give their resident bookworm a hard time, but not this time. "It's conjured when a person willingly gives their life to protect someone, or more than one person, whom that person cares about, protecting them."

Harry nodded in agreement. "Voldemort couldn't kill me. When he tried, the curse rebounded and destroyed his body."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked "it didn't kill him?"

"Have you heard of horcruxes?"

James's and Sirius's eyes grew wide, that was very dark magic, Taboo even. To hear it spoken of so freely by Harry was a bit unnerving.

Peter and Remus had not heard of horcruxes before, so Harry explained how it worked.

"He created one then?" Peter asked, finding his voice again.

"Six.. At first" Harry stated and everyone looked horrified. "He believed that if he split his soul into seven pieces, he would become immortal. I mentioned earlier that I lived on the run with Neville?" Harry asked to jog their memories. They all nodded for him to continue. "I started searching in, what would have been, my seventh year. My two best friends and I spent almost three years searching a destroying them. The first year we destroyed five before he discovered what we were doing... Then he started to make more and... well..we couldn't keep up with him." Harry deflated a bit at the memories. He missed his friends dearly.

James was devastated. When he thought of his future with Lily, which he often did, he never imagined the war would destroy so much. Their son.. He thought to himself, their son had suffered so much, much more than he was letting on. He knew it was ridiculous, but he felt like a failure. He had a chance to fix things now though,they would change thief futures and Harry's past. They had to..

"So what did you mean last night when you said that you had just found me?" Sirius asked, pulling James out of his depressing thoughts. "If I was your Godfather, was I not a part of your life?" If he was honest with himself, the thought of raising a child scared Sirius to death. He wasn't fit to take care of another person! Merlin he could barely take care of himself, and he didn't think he would change that much in four years.

Harry's face fell even more, he really didn't want to tell them this, but he had to. He had to be honest with them if he was going to prevent his past from happening again.

"You knew something was wrong when you couldn't get ahold of Peter, so you flew over and found... us.." Sirius felt like he was going to be sick, the image of James's cold lifeless body was more than he could handle. "Dumbledore thought you were the secret keeper, he didn't know about the switch." Harry restated "so he sent Hagrid to fetch me and take me to my relatives." Harry's eyes darkened and he practically hissed the word relatives. Remus and James shared a look, they had seen that look before, in Sirius's face when their friend spoke of his family. James heart dropped into his stomach. On top of all his son had gone through, he'd had an abusive home life as well? James ran his hand through his messy hair, when would his son catch a break! He thought angrily. Now, the little voice in his head told him and the realization struck, this was Harry's break! Hope bubbled up in James chest and he steeled himself, ready to listen to the rest of, what he dubbed, The Most Depressing Tale Ever.

"When Hagrid showed up, you handed me over to him, you told me later that you had planned to come back for me.." Harry's voice was very sad by this point and it was very obvious he didn't want to say what was coming next. "You went searching for Peter. When he found you Peter, you tried to fake your own death.. You tried to cast an explosion between the two of you so Sirius wouldn't see you transform, and he would assume that you had died, but your curse hit a gas line.. blowing up the street and killing twelve muggles... you didn't realize it at the time though, because you went underground, you found out weeks later... But by then it was to late."

Peter really thought he was going to be sick.. He wasn't sure how much more he could take. He wasn't a bad person, but he would become the worst kind of person imaginable, a coward, and a murderer. No! He thought to himself I have a second chance, sort of.. This time around things will be different, he would be brave, and loyal, and everything a Gryffindor should be! Everything his brothers were!

"Sirius, you saw Peter transform, but before you could stop him, the aurors showed up. Everyone thought you were the secret keeper.." Again, it was obvious that Harry didn't want to continue. "You were taken to Azkaban without a trail..." James jumped out of his chair, cursing wildly at the ministry, Voldemort, the future, anyone he could think to blame really. Sirius was pale, but held himself together. "What happens next?" Harry had said that Bella killed him, that he and Harry were reunited so he must have been released eventually.

"You escaped in my third year.."

Harry explained how Peter was hiding as Scabbers, he explained all about the Weasleys and how they were in the Daily Prophet that summer. He told them all about his third year, Remus beamed at the idea of being a professor. "Everyone's favorite professor actually" Harry had told him. And was proud to hear that he taught Harry to produce a corporeal patronus at the age of thirteen! Sirius was a little miffed at the idea that it was his fault the dementors were there in the first place, but James was on cloud nine when Harry informed them that he was the Gryffindor Seeker! As a third year! "I'll tell you more about that later" Harry had said. And by the mischievous look in those green eyes, James knew it was a story he wouldn't want to miss.

Harry told them all about the confrontation at the shrieking shack. "At the time, I still thought you were a death eater..." Harry said, a bit sheepishly. "So we sort of.. fought a bit.." Sirius was surprised at this, had he hit James's son? " well actually I fought.. You sort of humored me, while trying to explain your side of the story."

Sirius felt better at that, he was always afraid he would turn out like his parents. Harry went on to tell them about how his and Sirius's plans to live together never came about and how he and Hermione helped Sirius escape on were very impressed by that part.

By the end of the story, Harry realized it was time for lunch. Harry needed to speak with Dumbledore and the Mauraders needed to head to the great hall, they had plans to meet again at three. Harry had told them about using the Sword of Gryffindor to destroy horcruxes and they were determined to help him kill the basilisk again so they could use its venom. After all, if a twelve year old could do it, so could they. Right? Harry was not sold on that idea but was to hungry to argue so he would leave it up to Dumbledore to tell them no. Harry covered himself with his cloak and followed them out the door. As they turned toward the great hall, Harry headed to the Headmasters office.

 ** _A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Like I said in the description, this book does not follow along the with Deathly Hallows. I've had this story in my head for awhile, and when I couldn't find one similar, I decided to write my own! I'm so happy to see all these new followers and I hope you are still enjoying it! I would like to hear your opinions on my version of Peter's side of the story. I read a post the other day about how Peter must have held baby Harry at some point and after almost a decade of friendship with James and Sirius, how could he do what he did? So I decided to alter the story and make Peter out to be a better person. I'd like to hear your input as well. Also I discover a rather embarrassing mistake! In chapter 2, when Harry tells the Mauaraders who he is, I accidentally typed that he was born in 1981! Whoops! I have it correct in chapter 1 and everywhere else I believe! So just ignore that! Also, i just thought I'd mention that I'm going to stick with Jk's pairings. Harry/Ginny James/Lily Remus/Tonks perhaps Sirius/OC (I like the idea of Harry growing up with lots of cousins so I want Remus and Sirius each to have a few kids) I'm not sure about Peter's love life yet... (This was for my guest reviewer. No worries mate!) ;)_**


	6. Chapter 6 Peter's Redemption

**_A/N I present... Chapter 6!_**

 ** _So I didn't get any reviews about opinions on my version of Peter so I'll just assume your all cool with it? Ok! Now that that's settled I would like to thank Deathday Party Planner (that name is gold!) for taking the time to write such a lengthy review! You unknowingly revealed a big mistake of mine! This story takes place at the end of the Maurader's seventh year. When I was trying to figure out what year that would be, I based it off the year James would be 17 (27 March 1960 according to pottermore) I obviously didn't stop to think that James wouldn't get his letter till march of 71.. add 7 and you get 1978 not 1977. So as soon as I figure out how to go back and correct that I will. Until then... You guys can just deal with it, it was after 2 in the morning when I wrote that first chapter! I plead insomniactic ignorance!_**

Chapter 6 Peter's Redemption

James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus made their way down to the great hall for lunch.

"Well..." James huffed "that was a bit much." The others all nodded in agreement.

"Are you alright there Pete?" Peter had been relatively quiet since the reveal this morning.

Peter turned towards his best friends, his first friends, he was trying very hard to keep the tears out of his eyes. Not that they all hadn't cried in front of one another over the years, but they were grown now. Today was their last day of Hogwarts after all. Tomorrow they would be thrust out into the real world, and apparently it held many surprises and dangers.

"We aren't angry with you Wormy." Sirius reaffirmed, placing his hand on Peter's shoulder. All four had stopped in the middle of the corridor. To any onlookers it would appear as if the four trouble makers were simply sad about their final hours at Hogwarts.

Peter looked up at them, even though Peter had grown quite a bit over the years, he was still the shortest of the group, coming in just a few inches shorter than James. Sirius was quite tall, nearly 6ft. Remus towered over them all after his growth spurt in fifth year. He reached well over the 6ft mark.

Peter always felt a bit inferior standing below all of them, but they always tried to make sure he felt equal to them. He knew he wasn't their equal however, he wasn't stupid, but he wasn't as smart or as talented as his brothers. He tried to be brave, he was in Gryffindor after all! Though he wasn't sure he would ever be as brave as them, so instead of dwelling on those thoughts all these years, Peter tried to make himself useful in other ways. He would keep watch while the others snuck into the kitchen, potions cabinet, or the restricted section of the library. He would cause a distraction when necessary, he had actually gotten very good at this over the years, he could tell when they were about the get into serious trouble. Before any of the others realized they were about to be in over their heads, Peter was out in the open "tripping" over a suit of armor, yelling madly for his "lost cat", or James's favorite, changing into Wormtail and leading on a wild rat chase only to switch back and scare her while in a dark corridor.

Looking at them now though, he wondered why he ever thought he could be the one to save them from this war. Sure he could draw attention away from them, but when it came to fighting he would never win. They had always been the ones to protect him from the Slytherins in their younger years.

"Hey." James said, pulling Peter out of his thoughts. "I understand why you would do that.. I would do anything I could to keep you lot safe."

"But..." Peter started, but he was cut off by Sirius.

"But joining them is not the way to do that... now we know and we don't have to make that mistake. It's okay Pete, really. Those... people are evil... trust me I know, it's impossible to keep secrets from them, it wasn't your fault." The thought of his family always put Sirius in a bad mood. James decided it was time to pull everyone out of their sulking. He and Remus grabbed the other two and hauled them off to the great hall, bringing up their plans for a farewell prank for the entire school at the feast tonight.

Not long after they sat down and filled their plates, a group of girls came through the door. When James spotted Lily, his heart swelled, learning that he would indeed marry Lily, and that she would give him a son made him fall even more in love with her. She noticed his sappy stare as she walked up and sat across from him, blushing profusely. Sirius made a rude gagging noise that James ignored.

"Would you stop?" Lily demanded, though she had a small smile playing across her lips. James just winked at her and went back to eating.

"Where have you lot been all morning?" She asked, eyeing them suspiciously. Letting her accusing glare linger on Remus, the worst liar of the group.

"Had a lie in." Remus and Sirius said at the exact same time. Their faces stayed stoic while they silently slapped hands under the table. Peter just nodded and yawned dramatically, attempting to back up their ruse. James smiled at Lily and changed the subject. "What have you been up to this morning?" He asked politely, handing her the plate of sandwiches.

"We've been in Professor McGonagall's office sending applications to the ministry." Lily replied as she began to eat her sandwich, picking off the tomatoes and placing them on the side of her plate. They passed the rest of their lunch talking and enjoying each other's company. After lunch they all walked out to the pond and sat under their favorite tree and passed the time.

Meanwhile, Harry made his way to the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore had lunch for the two of them brought up. He invited Harry to sit down at the desk, which was serving as a table at the moment. Harry sat as Dumbledore passed him a plate and they began to eat.

"I have sent the necklace to a friend of mine to examine." Dumbledore told Harry. "I will let you know as soon as we uncover any information on it." Harry nodded

"We need to discuss your cover story for being here, also I should apply some glamours to change your appearance as you are very obviously a Potter."

"There's something you should know first Professor." Harry replied. Harry then explained how his father and his father's friends found him the previous night and that Harry had told them everything. The look on Dumbledore's face clearly said he did not approve.

"No offense sir, but I know how you like to keep information all to yourself and quite frankly I don't agree with you. In my past, had my parents not kept the identity of their real secret keeper from you, Sirius would have avoided Azkaban, had you not kept the prophecy a secret from me my fifth year, or had you explained my visions to me I may not have fallen for Voldemort's trick. I understand the need to keep some information secret." Harry thought of the resurrection stone and cloak currently hidden in his pouch and wondered what the Headmaster would do if he knew the three items Albus spent his youth hunting were currently all sitting in office.

Harry had also left any mention of the Hallows out of the memories he gave to the headmaster.

"We agreed we need to change the future." Harry continued "I plan on saving as many lives as possible along the way. Peter needed to know his plan to join the death eaters wouldn't work, had he not known who I was he might have still tried to join. I don't want to spin a web of lies sir."

Albus was thoughtful for a moment, if he was honest with himself, the thought of being honest with everyone else had never crossed his mind. It would make it easier to convince everyone else to believe Harry if they knew how he had all this information, however if his information fell into the wrong hands..

"Who, exactly will you give this information to? I must cation you, should this information get back to Voldemort he will undoubtedly come after you."

"Only the Order, we will use the Fidelius charm to keep my secret" Harry replied confidently. "I will be the secret keeper, that way if I am to die and the secret is broken... well... It won't matter because I'll be dead."

Albus nodded "We will still need a cover story to explain your sudden appearance to everyone who isn't a part of the order, however I assume that Charlus and Dorea will be more than capable of providing a back story."

"Who?" Harry asked, he didn't recall those names from his own time.

"Your grandparents, James mother and father." Albus had forgotten that Harry never knew his wizarding family. "I should floo them later and explain all of this now that I think of it."

Harry was lost in the thought of meeting his grandparents. Sirius had told him a little about them, not much though. He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice Dumbledore had cleared away what was left of their lunch.

"Now" he announced, pulling Harry from his thoughts. "What is your plan?"

Harry shook his head to clear away the thoughts of family. "Well sir, we need to find all of Voldermorts horcruxes as soon as possible, he can't be killed until those are gone."

"How exactly do you plan for us to destroy them once we find them?" Albus asked, honest curiosity shining in his eyes.

"I will need to borrow the sorting hat and Fawkes. If Fawkes will allow it that is?" Harry looked questioningly at the bird who trilled and bowed it's head.

"It looks as if Fawkes is willing" Dumbledore acknowledged "may I ask what you plan on doing?"

Before Harry could reply, they were alerted to someone coming up the stairs. After the knock on the door, Albus invited them in. When the door opened, Remus poked his head in and noticed Harry.

"May we come in sir?" He asked after smiling a greeting at Harry.

"Yes, come in" he answered and he conjured four more chairs around the desk, each chair was made of different bright and tacky fabrics that made Harry smile.

The four boys all greeted Harry and Dumbledore as they came in and sat down in the quirky office. Sirius plopped down and threw his arm over the back of the chair, but after a scowl from both Remus and James he straightened up.

"Sir," James began "we want to join the Order of the Phoenix."

"Oh?" Dumbledore questioned, though his tone said he wasn't surprised at all. "And how did you find out about the Order?"

"Frank told us last year." Remus replied.

"Why do you want to join?" Dumbledore questioned while eyeing each of them speculatively.

"It's the right thing to do." Said Remus, blushing a little under the steadfast gaze of his headmaster. The others agreed, each throwing in their own reasons, Dumbledore seemed convinced.

"After learning what I have" Dumbledore said while gesturing towards Harry. "I believe your loyalty... all of you" the old man sent a pointed glance at Peter, forcing the younger man to make eye contact. Peter smiled a small smile, reassured that people still trusted him.

"What about you Harry?" Harry looked away from Peter to see quizzical blue eyes shinning at him. "I assume you were a member of the Order as well?" Dumbledore stated.

Harry smirked "actually no.. I never officially joined. Though Sirius did try to convince you to let me join when I was fifteen."

"Of course he did" James muttered to himself, rolling his eyes. Sirius and Harry just smirked at each other.

"Well it looks to me like you were already in the thick of it anyway, you might as well be doing something useful." Sirius explained.

Harry just laughed, one of his genuine, bell sounding, happy laughs and this time James noticed who it sounded like and he couldn't help but smile as well.

"That is exactly what you said to and Dumbledore in my past." Harry laughed and Sirius just shrugged.

"Anyway" Harry turned back to his old headmaster "I wasn't in the Order, but I was the leader of Dumbledore's Army." Harry said with a mischievous glint in his eye that didn't go unnoticed by his father.

"What, exactly, was Dumbledore's Army?" Albus questioned, eyes twinkling.

Harry explained about the need to teach themselves Defense Against the Dark Arts, leading Hermione to create the Defense Association and about Ginny renaming it to reflect the minister's fear. Sirius laughed and declared Ginny to be brilliant. James however noticed the longing in Harry's voice as he spoke of his friend Hermione and the hurt when speaking of Ginny, James's heart broke. He couldn't imagine losing so much.

Dumbledore chuckled as well, enjoying the joke "Well, I officially welcome you into the Order... If that is what you wish?"

Harry nodded "thank you sir."

"Well, back to business. I think, now that you all are officially in the order. I will ask the five of you to work together, using Harry's information, to keep his past from becoming our future" Dumbledore turned his attention fully onto Harry. "You were about to tell me your next move?"

Harry straightened "Before we start hunting his horcruxes, we will need something to destroy them, in my past, I used the sword of Gryffindor after it had been impregnated with basilisk venom."

"Basilisk venom!" Dumbledore exclaimed "how...?"

"The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk, I killed it with the sword in my second year."

Dumbledore visibly paled. "Your second year?"

"It's in my memories." Harry reminded "that's why I need to sorting hat, Fawkes brought it to me down in the chamber last time, and after I was bit, he healed me." Harry said, while running the back of his finger down Fawkes's chest.

Dumbledore took a moment to collect himself. Then asked how Harry planned to accomplish this dangerous task.

"After I summon it, I will release a rooster and wait for it to crow, if that doesn't work.. I suppose I'll have to use the sword."

"We will be there as well." Sirius announced.

"I don't know guys... It's pretty dangerous,I should probably go by myself." Harry suggested assuming that Dumbledore would agree.

"I believe for something as dangerous as this, more people would be beneficial to us." Dumbledore looked over his glasses at Harry as he replied.

"To us? You're coming with me?" Harry asked surprised.

"Of course,and seeing as these four are now members, there's no reason they shouldn't go, we will more than likely need their help." Albus replied, as if this was the most obvious thing is the world. "When shall we depart?"

Harry looked at the five men, a bit exasperated but unwilling to argue "I suppose there's no time like the present."

As Harry walked toward the sink, Sirius couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"Why the bloody hell are we in the girls bathroom?"

"This" Harry gestured to the sink "is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."

"Fascinating" Dumbledore replied. "People have been searching the castle for centuries! How did you manage to discover its whereabouts?"

Harry shrugged "I asked Moaning Myrtle, she was the student killed the first time the chamber was opened."

Albus was very disappointed by the fact that he never thought to do that,he was teaching when the tragedy occurred after all.

"I should warn you all... I umm... when Voldemort marked me as his equal" Harry pointed at his scar. "He kind of... gave me some of his abilities..." Harry trailed off, he was afraid to admit to his father and to Sirius that he was a parslemouth.

"What is it Harry?" James tried to encourage.

"I can speak parsletounge." Harry admitted.

They were all shocked, but they didn't want to upset Harry, so they tried to control their reactions.

"Someday Harry, we will get to the point where we are no longer shocked by the things you say." Sirius threw his arm around Harry shoulders and ruffled Harry's hair "today is not that day."

Harry just smirked and pushed Sirius back into James, secretly relieved that he wasn't shunned. Then he turned toward the sink and stared at the engraved snake, pretending it was real.

" _Open_ " Harry hissed and stood back as the sink moved to reveal the opening. He looked back at his dad, attempting to judge his reaction. James was staring wide eyed at Harry. "That was actually pretty cool." He said. Harry just laughed and jumbled down the hole. The others followed behind shortly, Dumbledore bringing up the rear and sliding gracefully down the dirty slide. Fawkes flew down beside him.

Soon they made their way to the entrance.

"Alright" Harry said as he turned to face them "stay hidden, keep your eyes shut as much as you can, if you have to open them then look down. And if I tell you to run, you run and don't look back. Do you understand me?"

Dumbledore nodded his head, even though the other four looked unsure, they all nodded as well.

"Alright, once we get in there I'll give you all time to hide, then I'll summon the snake and transfigure the rooster. If that doesn't work I'll have to fight it... Just please be careful ok?"

"Us?" Exclaimed James "you have the hard job! be careful too alright?"

Harry smiled and nodded. Then he turned toward the door with the snake latch.

" _Open_ "

The snake slithered around the curve of the door and it swung open with an ominous creak. Harry climbed inside, followed by the others. It was just as he remembered. The lanterns were dimly lit, reflecting in the shallow water on the stone floor. On the opposite wall, a giant sculpture of Salazar's face.

"That's a bit self absorbed, don't you think?" Sirius laughed and pointed to the giant face, earning himself an elbow in the ribs from Remus before James pulled him behind a giant pillar to hide. Satisfied that everyone was as hidden as possible. Harry stepped toward the mouth of Slytherin. He pulled the sorting hat out of his pouch and placed it on his head. The hat did not come to life, but Harry felt something heavy hit the top of his head. He might not be in the correct timeline, but he was still a worthy Gryffindor in need of the sword. He pulled the sword out and put the hat back in the pouch.

To say that the others were impressed was an understatement. They didn't know the sword could be summoned, but Harry had seen Neville do it in the battle at Hogwarts.

Finally, Harry faced the sculpture and took a deep breath.

" _Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four."_

The mouth started to open, Harry transfigured a nearby rock into a rooster and joined Remus behind on of the pillars.

 _"Master has returned_ " Harry heard the snake " _let me kill. Let me kiiiillll."_

" _No_ " Harry replied, surprising the others. Hearing Harry carry on a conversation with the beast was very different from just hearing him open the doors, but they remained calm.

" _No? Then you are not my master. I can smell you, halfblood, dirty blood."_

Then they heard something that made their hearts sink into their stomachs, they heard the sound of the snake killing the rooster.

"Damn!" Remus whispered

" _I must kill_ " the snake hissed

" _No you must not kill!_ " Harry responded

"Fawkes!" Harry called to the bird sitting on Dumbledore's shoulder behind the column next to Harry and Remus.

The bird flew over to the snake and they heard the disgusting squelching noise of the snake's eyes being ripped out. The snake screamed in pain and Harry took off, running towards it, now that it was safe to look. His feet splashed in the water as he ran, catching the snake's attention and it lunged but Harry managed to dodge. The two seemed to dance, Harry trying to lure the snake close enough to stab while avoiding its bite. It stuck forward again, missing Harry by milimeters.

"Duck!" James screamed

"No!" Harry yelled but the snake was already heading in the direction of the new voice, it was too fast for Harry to stop.

James froze, the snake was coming right for him. Peter, however did not freeze.

He could see that they were in way over their heads, they needed a distraction.

Peter took off, running between James and the snake, pushing James to safety in the process. The snake lunged at him, but Peter was too quick. He took off running towards the face of Slytherin.

Harry saw what was happening and turned and climbed up onto the rock face. Peter was running as fast as he could but the snake was gaining on him. The snake opened his mouth and lunged straight at Peter, but right then Peter shrunk down and transformed into Wormtail, squeezing into a small crevice of the rock face. As the snake lunged, Harry thrust the sword up through the roof of the basilisk's mouth and out the top of its head.

The chamber went silent as the beast fell the the ground. The thud rang through the silence as Harry climbed down and Peter scurried out of the crevice and changed back. The others came out from their hiding places as well. Harry walked over to the basilisk and pulled the sword from its mouth.

"Harry! Your arm!" Peter pointed at the small fang stuck into Harry's arm.

James's eyes widened in horror at the sight of a fang lodged in Harry's blood covered arm "oh no! Harry!" James exclaimed as he ran towards Harry and Peter.

Harry grabbed the fang and pulled it out in one swift motion, causing more blood to flow freely out of the wound.

Sirius was right on James's heels. The sound of their footsteps splashing in the water echoed.

"Hold on Harry!" Panic was evident in his voice as he tried to cover the wound and stop the bleeding.

"Sirius, stop!" Remus said firmly, but calmly as he pulled Sirius back to let Dumbledore through. As Albus approached, Fawkes flew from his shoulder to Harry's. Harry held the would closer to the Phoenix and Fawkes leaned over and let tears fall onto the gash. Harry immediately sighed in relief, as did everyone else.

Once he checked to make sure everyone was alright, Dumbledore turned toward Peter "that was very impressive Peter. Extremely brave as well."

Peter smiled a little and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, he hadn't really thought it through in the moment. It just sort of happened. James pulled him into a hug, slapping his back.

"You saved my life" James said

"You saved all of our lives." Harry corrected "I don't know if I could have done it without you this time."

Peter just smiled in response. For once he felt worthy of being a Gryffindor, he finally felt brave.


	7. Chapter 7 The Farewell Feast

**_A/N: I know what you're thinking! "Another chapter already? This hasn't happened since the first three chapters!" Well it's happened again! I had a rare Friday at work to myself (which means business is slow today) so to occupy my time I wrote a lovely little fluff chapter! It truly is a piece of fluff, no point to it really, I just wanted to establish some personalities. Just like with Harry, some of my other characters will be OOC. I like my young to Remus to have the occasional rebellious moment. He's 18 after all!_**

Chapter 7 The Farewell Feast

The group made their way back to Dumbledore's office.

"I believe we should all go and clean up for the feast tonight." The headmaster suggested.

Harry's face took on a nostalgic look. "I have missed Hogwarts's feasts" he said a bit wistfully.

"Well you get to enjoy one tonight!" James smiled as he threw his arm around Harry's shoulders.

"I can't just show up in the Great Hall! Looking just like you!" Harry exclaimed, looking at James like this should have been obvious. "People will wonder who I am and I don't want anyone else to know about me yet."

"Oh silly me!" Replied James very sarcastically. "It's a shame there's no way to alter your appearance, you would think a room of fully trained wizards could preform such magic..." He drawled out while rolling his eyes.

Harry just huffed at him. "I didn't think of that." He replied a bit sheepishly.

James just laughed and ruffled Harry's hair. Harry shoved James off of him but smiled, he was elated to be able to spend time with James, and the fact that these three men he loved (Peter was still growing on him) had accepted him so fully into their group. He was feeling happier than he'd been in a long time.

Dumbledore sent them all to clean up, with instructions for Harry to return so Albus could change Harry's appearance, so that Harry could join the feast with Dumbledore as the headmaster's guest. So he left under the cover of his cloak.

On their way back to their dorm, the Mauraders spoke, a little to loudly, about the nice man from Romania they had just met in Dumbledore's office. Making sure the sixth year Hufflepuff girls, who practically ran the gossip mill, were able to hear.

As they got back in their room, James cast a muffliato charm on their door. Something they had been doing since they learned the spell, just to insure no one over heard any of their conversations. They had many secrets after all, and if someone heard them talking about what they do during the full moon it would be disastrous.

"You sure you're alright Peter?" Remus asked

"I'm fine, really!" Peter smiled, he was fine. He felt like he had proven his loyalty, not to his brothers because they still trusted him, but to Dumbledore and to Harry. Harry had been very sincere when he thanked Peter, and Peter actually believed him when Harry said that he couldn't have done it without Peter's help. It sounded silly, but Peter felt different, like some switch had been flipped.

James smiled at Peter as he pulled the bottle of firewhiskey from Sirius's bedside table. "Then please allow me to pour you a drink sir." He drawled in his best aristocratic tone, holding himself upright and presenting the drink,in a manner that would have made his grandmother proud had it not been a cheap bottle of firewhiskey smuggled into school.

"Thank you sir." Peter played along, bowing slightly to James before taking a swig directly out of the bottle. Sirius just rolled his eyes and took the bottle back, stowing it back in its drawer.

"It's a good thing we took those vials to the kitchen before going to Dumbledore's office!" Remus said, laying across the foot of Sirius's bed.

"I still can't believe Lilly made the potion for us!" Peter shook his head in bewilderment.

"Well we aren't picking on anyone in particular, and the effects only last ten minutes. Besides, I think most people could use a laugh about now." Remus replied.

"She only hated our pranks when we were targeting people and embarrassing them." James explained.

Sirius got up and started digging through his pile of clothes, "you know prongs, I wasn't sure why your were obsessed with that bird all these years, but she's not that bad actually." He picked up a shirt and sniffed it, deciding that it smelled good enough he grabbed the rest of the clothes he had gathered and headed for the shower. A few minutes later. Remus spoke up

"Can I ask you something?" Remus looked at James.

"Of course Moony! What's on your mind?" James replied.

"Well, I was just wondering how you feel about Harry? Don't get me wrong, I like him. I'm not sure if it's because he knows my secret or if it's because of my relationship with him in his past, but I feel like he's already my friend. Almost like I already know him..." Remus tried to explain. "I'm just curious how you feel?"

James was thoughtful for a moment. "I feel the same way." He replied. "I am very comfortable with him, like I've known him for a long time... but I don't feel like he's my son... Is that wrong?"

"I don't think so... " Peter interjected

"Neither do I" said Remus "you're eighteen, he's what?" Remus quickly calculated in his head "twenty one? I thinks it's normal that you feel more like a friend or brother rather than a father."

James didn't look very relieved. "But what if he thinks of me as a father? What if I disappoint him because I don't feel the same? He's been through enough already!"

"I don't know James..." Remus shrugged "I guess you should just see how he acts around you the more you two spend time together."

James nodded his agreement.

"How do you feel about the fact that Lily is his mother? You're alright with knowing your future with her?" Peter asked

"I've known I would ask her to marry me for awhile now..." James smiled "takes a bit of the pressure off knowing she says yes!" He teased. His face sobered a bit though.

"I don't want her to know who Harry really is though... At least not at first, I want her to marry me because she wants to... not because she feels like she has to. Does that make sense?"

"I think so" replied Peter "you want her to feel like it's her decision, not because her son from the future told her she needed to."

"I think that's fair" said Remus "will you tell her eventually?"

"Probably, do you think she will forgive me for lying to her?"

"I do." Said Remus honestly. "She won't be happy that she was left out but I think she will agree with your reasoning. I mean that's why Harry didn't want you to know in the first place."

"What are we talking about?" Sirius asked as he stepped out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around his hair. Remus quickly filled him in.

"Didn't he say that he and Dumbledore plan on telling the Order?" Sirius asked "Lily would be furious if the entire Order of the Phenix knew and she didn't."

"I forgot about that..." James said as he ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more. "Maybe we could change his eye color and tell the order he's a cousin of mine rather than my son?"

"That would work. We will talk to him and Dumbledore about it after dinner." Sirius said.

Peter got up and headed for the showers as Sirius started to beg Remus to dry his hair.

"No Padfoot! We aren't teenage girls at a slumber party! I'm not fixing your hair!"

"Moony please? When I do it, it looks bushy! You're much better at the drying charm!" Sirius pleaded

James decided to start packing some of his mess away as he listened to Remus try to teach Sirius the spell. Sirius clearly had no interest in learning it and just wanted Remus to do it for him.

"I'm not always going to be around to dry your hair for you Pads!"

Sirius looked extremely affronted "Why not? Where are you going?"

Exasperated, Remus replied "we won't always be living together Sirius!" He continued to try and explain the spell to his friend.

The Great Hall was decorated in blue and bronze and the Ravenclaw banner was proudly displayed from the ceiling. By the time the Great Hall was filled for the feast, everyone had heard about the Romanian man who was visiting. Although by the time the rumor got out, it had changed to include that he had been offered the job as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor next year and was here to visit the school. Harry sat next to Dumbledore at the head table. Albus had really done a number on him, he certainly would never be recognized. He was now as tall as Remus, but big and bulky. He had a bushy blonde beard and blonde hair hidden under a maroon, pointed hat that matched his plain maroon robes. When the Mauraders all sat down, they looked up at him a received a quick wink before he turned his attention to the rest of the room, until Lily came in and sat down next to James. Harry's eyes discretely followed her as she crossed the room. Harry smiled as James kissed her on the cheek. He was happy to be able to witness such moments between his parents.

Dumbledore then stood up to give his speech, he awarded the House Cup to Ravenclaw, congratulated the Gryffindors on winning the Quidditch Cup and spoke a bit about what a wonderful year it had been. He didn't speak too long since everyone was waiting on him to finish before eating. As soon as the food appeared Lily and the Mauraders shared mischievous looks. Everyone in the great hall happily dug in. It didn't take long for the effects of the spiked pumpkin juice to show. There was a squeal from the Ravenclaw table as one of the girls' arms morphed into a pair of grey wings, followed by loud cursing coming from the Slytherin table as they broke out in green scales. Soon everyone was laughing as they began to grow feathers, scales, forked tongues, black and white fur, whiskers, or their hair transformed into a wild lions mane. Every table looked like their house emblem, it was complete chaos.

Remus decided to join in the fun. He picked up his drink and downed it, his nose shrunk as it blended in with his top lip, his hair quickly grew into a lions mane. He then took a pack of Marty MacClemore's Cackling Crackers out of his pocket and grabbed the first lion shaped cracker he could find. Shoving the cracker in his mouth, he hopped up on the table. As soon as the cracker's affects kicked in Remus through his head back and released a loud roar that echoed through the hall. The entire Gryffindor table erupted in applause and most of the other tables as well, except Slytherin of course, they were still trying to talk using forked tongues. A seventh year Ravenclaw boy jumped up on their table and aggressively flapped his wings, eliciting cheers from his table and laughter from the others.

Sirius and Peter doubled over in laughter, everyone thought Remus was the quiet one but those who knew him best knew he had a wild side that could rival Sirius Black. James just beamed up at his friend hogging the spotlight, he was so proud of the amount of confidence Remus had gained over the years. Lily giggled at her friend and shook her head, she hadn't told any of them, but she had figured out what Remus went through on the full moon. She didn't know how bad it really was, but she could guess. So she always loved those moments when he let loose and had fun. Then Lily grabbed her drink as well, she turned towards James and wiggled her whiskers at him. James laughed loudly and kissed her little lion nose. Slughorn was practically bouncing in his seat, loudly bragging on his students for creating such a difficult and creative potion. Madam Pomfrey, however, was not nearly as impressed. Luckily for her, the affects quickly wore off and students returned to normal.

Harry had been laughing quietly to himself. He was quite surprised to see Remus jump on the table like that, but Sirius had once said to him, after Remus had pulled a prank on Sirius in Grimmauld place, " _Don't let 'Professor Lupin' fool you Harry, he was a Marauder after all._ " It was nice to be around people again. Laughing, having a good meal, and seeing people burst into feathers reminded Harry of eating at the Burrow.

He was hoping to see Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at his first Order meeting. With that happy thought in his head, Harry returned to his meal.

 ** _A/N: There you go! Personalities are being established (which was the only point of this chapter) and a couple of seeds planted! Have a wonderful weekend all!_**


	8. Chapter 8 Meeting the Family

Chapter 8 Meeting the Family

The feast had ended, and the dirty plates and food were disappearing down to the kitchens. Everyone was full and happy, heading off to their dormitories for their last evening at school.

"We should introduce ourselves James." Lily said as they all stood up from the table.

"What?" James asked "to who?"

Lily rolled her eyes and started to drag him to the head table. "To the guest of course! We are Head boy and girl after all!"

"Oh Lily he's eating we shouldn't disturb him!" James replied, trying to make excuses, he was worried how Harry would react to meeting his mother.

"No he's not James! Look! His plates are gone!" She kept on pulling him up to the table.

Harry and Professor McGonagal were having a discussion about a book she had just finished when they approached the table.

"Ah, allow me to introduce Hogwarts' Head boy and girl, James Potter and Lily Evans. Both from my own house of Gryffindor." She said, not concealing the pride in her voice as she unknowingly introduced Harry to his parents.

Harry hadn't seen them coming so he wasn't fully prepared to see the familiar green eyes looking at him from across the table. James could see the surprise in Harry's eyes even if Harry was hiding it very well.

"Welcome to Hogwarts ! I do hope you enjoyed the feast." Lily offered politely there was an awkward pause as Harry drank in the sight of her, then she subtlety sent an elbow into James's ribs.

"Yes!" James said a little to loudly, drawing Harry out of his stupor. "Hogwarts kitchen hosts some of the best cooks in the country." He finished, giving Harry an apologetic look.

"I must say that I agree ." Harry replied in his best impression of a Romanian accent. "The best treacle tart I have eaten since my childhood." He said as he smiled at his parents in front of him.

"The treacle tart has always been my favorite!" Lily happily agreed.

Harry smiled warmly at her, he never knew he shared a favorite dessert with his mother. He thanked heaven above for giving him a chance at spending time with his parents.

"You have good taste Ms. Evans."

Lily returned his smile.

"Well, we just wanted to welcome you to Hogwarts and we hope you enjoy your stay." James offered as he, Lily, and Harry said their farewells.

" ?" Dumbledore interjected before the two walked out of earshot. "Would you please join me in my office in an hour or so?"

"Yes sir." James replied.

As he and Lily joined the rest of their group outside the Great Hall, all the boys shared brief smiles of relief.

"He had a very lovely smile." Lily remarked as they began to climb the stares.

James just smiled, and nodded his head. He had been admiring that same smile, on a different face, for the past seven years.

An hour later Harry was looking like himself again as he sat in with Dumbledore in the Headmaster's office. It looked almost the same as it had in Harry's past, strange gadgets twirling and buzzing on the shelves, old leather bound books stacked haphazardly into towers, and Fawkes sitting proudly on the stand in the corner.

"It looks as if it's time for Fawkes to be reborn." Harry casually remarked.

"Yes, any day now I believe" the Headmaster replied. "Remarkable creatures are they not? To be reborn from the ashes of your old life must be a miraculous feeling."

Harry was thoughtful for a moment, idly watching the bird in question before responding. "I think I can relate to that on some level, professor."

Albus chuckled a little "yes, my boy, I suppose you can." He sobered a little then continued. "Speaking of Fawkes, I have a question for you. How did you know about the tail feathers given to Olivander?"

Harry held up his wand 'I have one of them." He replied "the other wand chose Tom Riddle."

Dumbledore sat back a moment as he contemplated this new information. "Your entire life seems to be intertwined with his."

Harry just nodded as he stowed his wand away again.

It wasn't long before James joined them in the office. After inviting him to sit down, Dumbledore explained to them what the purpose of this meeting was.

"James your parents will be here any moment."

Harry's eyes widened at this. He was going to meet his grandparents! The ones he had seen in the mirror, the man that had messy hair a knobby knees like him and the woman Sirius had told him stories of! He couldn't meet them like this! He was a mess! He was in his worn out muggle clothes and he was covered in battle scars! Not exactly the happy picture of a grandson.

Dumbledore continued, "I have informed them that you, James, have joined the Order. I have also told them of the situation concerning you, Harry. I'm not sure they fully believed me, but they agreed to come and see for them selves."

Harry nodded his understanding, then looked down at his clothes, wishing he had something nicer to wear. He tried to act calm but his insides were all jittery, he tired to flatten out his hair to no avail. Then started tapping his foot on the stone floor. He hadn't been given any warning when meeting his parents or the others, they had all just sprung themselves on him, now however he had time to worry about what kind of impression he would make.

James sensed Harry's nervousness, "What's got you worried mate?" He asked, hopping to be able to ebb his fears.

Harry unconsciously ran his hand through his hair, messing up what he had just tried to flatten. He shrugged his shoulders "I don't know... I mean I'm sort of a mess right now.." He reached up and touched the scar running from under his ear across his neck. "I bit scary even..." He said glumly.

"Harry, Dad worked as an Auror for years! He's got his share of scars as well. It just comes with the territory. If anything, they will be proud of the way you've fought your entire life." He replied honestly.

Harry calmed a bit, believing everything James had said. Then the fireplace lit up with green flames and two older, dark headed people stepped out.

Harry's nerves returned, what if they didn't believe him? What if they did but blamed him for not ending the war sooner? What if they just told him he was crazy, took James, and left!

"Hello Mum! Dad!" James said as he kissed his mother on the cheek.

"Hello Jamie!" Dorea said warmly. Charlus slapped James on the back and smiled. Albus walked up and greeted the two of them, shaking hands. Harry stood but found he was to nervous to move forward. Then his green eyes met his Grandmother's dark blue ones and her mouth fell open. She slowly walked toward him, staring intently.

"Merlin" she breathed as she turned back towards James standing by the fire place and then back to Harry.

"Dad, Mum... This is Harry." James said as he left his fathers side to stand next to Harry. Charlus walked up to stand next to his wife as Albus returned to his spot behind the desk.

"I know this is hard to believe." Dumbledore began. "But I administered veritaserum, preformed legilimacy, and also extracted some of his memories. He is telling the truth."

Dorea looked at Harry in wonder. "So you are truly James's son?"

"Yes." Harry managed to find his voice. "I know it's hard to believe but..."

"But it's true." James finished the sentence for him. "Dad, we talked about the heirloom."

This seemed to do the trick, as both of their eyes widened and they looked to James.

"He even has it with him. I asked him to prove who he was and he pulled it out, I still had mine in my pocket. He had never heard the true story until I told it to him, dad." James voice was confident as he convinced his father. That last bit seemed to do the trick as Charlus looked Harry in the eyes and said "is that true?"

Harry didn't look away from his Grandfathers brown eyes as he responded. "Yes Sir."

Before he knew what was happening, Harry was wrapped in a tight hug from the both of them. At first he wasn't sure what to do, then he returned the hug, wrapping one arm around each of them.

"Oh you poor thing!" Dorea exclaimed, tears brimming her eyes. "You must have been through so much." She said as she took in his appearance.

"We should probably talk about that now." Said Albus as he conjured two more chairs so that everyone could sit.

"Harry, would you please tell them everything you told me last night?"

Harry nodded then began the story again. Starting with the prophecy, he skipped over his childhood only saying that he lived with his aunt and uncle, although both his grandparents noticed the malice in his voice as he spoke about that. He hit the important parts of his school years, he told them about the horcruxes and the four years he'd been hunting them. He ended with his duel with Bellatrix and his travel back in time.

By the time it was over all three were rather pale. James couldn't believe so much bad could happen to one person.

"You said you went to live with your aunt and uncle?" Charlus asked "where were we?" He gestured between himself and his wife.

"I really don't know." Harry replied. "You both passed away before I was born, but no one ever told me what happened."

James looked very unnerved at this, he couldn't properly keep his family safe if he didn't know what threats they were facing.

"You know Charlus," Dorea began "we are getting on in age, perhaps it would be best if step aside and let the younger ones fight this war." Charlus looked like he was ready to argue but she held up her hand to stop him. "I'm not suggesting that we completely abandon the Order. However, we can slow down and help in other ways."

"That is a perfectly agreeable proposal ." Replied Albus.

"I suppose that's best, considering the circumstances." Charlus agreed. James and Harry both sighed in relief, two less people they had to worry about.

"There is something we need from you both right now." Albus said as he sat forward, leaning on his desk. "We plan on telling the Order who Harry is, maintaining his secret using he Fidelius charm. We will need a cover story explaining Harry's sudden appearance to the rest of the world."

James spoke up. "Actually, I was wondering if we could change your story a bit? I don't want Lily to know who you are just yet. I want her to marry me because she wants to, not because she feels like she is supposed to. If she knows you are my son, she will want to know who your mother is and... well it's quite obvious it's her."

The rest of the group agreed, they knew Lily wouldn't appreciate the lie when she found out, but it was the only way to keep her unbiased.

They eventually decided on telling the public that Harry was Charlus's nephew Harold Potter. The only son of Charlus's older brother Fleamont, who had moved with his wife to Finland many years ago. He and his wife had both passed away, leaving no children behind. They would tell the Order that Harry was actually the grandson of Fleamont. Fleamont had been a reclusive, eccentric man who kept to himself. It would be easy to pretend that he'd had a son that nobody knew about.

Once they had the details worked out, Charlus and Dorea stood to leave. It was getting very late.

"Will you be riding the train home with James tomorrow or coming at a different time?" Charlus asked Harry.

Harry looked very confused. "I'm sorry... What?" He asked. James and Dorea looked back at Harry blankly.

"Tomorrow, when Hogwarts closes," Charlus repeated. "How will you be getting home? Will you be there with James when we pick him up or should we expect you at a different time?"

The realization hit Harry. "Home? With... with you all?" Harry's eyes widened, since he lived in a broom cupboard his whole childhood, Hogwarts had been his only home. After that he had lived on the run as a wanted man, he suddenly realized he'd never had a home.

"You are coming home with us aren't you?" Dorea asked. However the tone in her voice suggested there was only one acceptable answer.

"Yes... Of course." Harry tried very hard to keep his emotions in check. "If you are sure I won't be a burden?"

"No burden at all son!" Charlus said as he slapped Harry on the back. "When should we expect you?"

"Uhm... Well, Professor Dumbledore and I are going to search the Room of Requirement tomorrow morning for one of the horcruxes, so, probably tomorrow evening."

"Wonderful!" Dorea exclaimed. "I'll have everything ready when you arrive!"

Harry was about to protest, saying she didn't need to go to any trouble when they stepped into the fireplace and disappeared.

"That went well!" James said as he threw an arm around Harry's shoulders. Harry smiled back and agreed, clearly relieved.

"Where's this Room of Requirement you were talking about?" James asked

"Yes, I was wondering the same thing." Said Albus

Harry explained to them their need in his fifth year to find a suitable room for the D.A. to meet, one that was relatively secret. And how Hermione had asked the elves who told her about the come and go room.

"Wow!" James exclaimed. "Such a shame we never found that particular hidden gem!"

"Yes I am most excited to see how this room works tomorrow! For now though, I must be off the bed. We have had quite the excitable day and a busy one ahead of us tomorrow." Dumbledore saw them to the door and bade them goodnight.

As the walked down the corridor together, James turned to Harry and said "you doing alright? You've been through a lot the past 24 hours you know."

Harry chuckled a bit. "The sad part is, this is nothing compared to everything else I've done up until now."

James laughed as well, "yes, time traveling, meeting a bunch of dead people, killing a giant basilisk again! And saving the lives of your family is just a day's work for you!"

Harry laughed again, James loved hearing that sound. "When you say it like that, it does sound a bit much."

They were both silent for a moment.

"Always wondered why the Room of Requirement never showed up on the map." Harry said as they rounded a corner.

"Well from what you said, it must be very hard to find!" James replied

The rest of the way, Harry talked about the secret room and about the D.A. James was very impressed with what his son accomplished that year and how his son was such a natural leader.

"By the last meeting, everyone was able to cast a corporeal patronus." Harry said.

"Really? You taught them that?" James could hardly contain his excitement.

"Well, I had a good teacher, so I just tried to do what he would have done. Had he been there longer than a year."

"Who taught you how to do that?"

Harry smiled "Professor Lupin."

James smiled even more. "I forgot you told us that already! What is you patronus by the way?"

Harry smirked at James. "Prongs." He said as he shoved James a little with his shoulder. James stopped walking though, his jaw dropped.

"Really?" He asked. Harry just smiled and nodded.

"Can I see?" James asked. Then James face split into a wide smile as Harry stepped back and conjured a proud stag right there in front of James.

 ** _A/N Damn I'm on a roll this weekend! You can thank my insomnia for this chapter! Hope you enjoy!_**


	9. Chapter 9 One Down

Chapter 9 One Down

Harry awoke the next morning just as the sun was coming up. He rolled over and tried to get some more rest but it was no use. Throwing the covers back, Harry stood and stretched, before making his way to the shower. He stepped in and allowed the hot water to relax his muscles and wake him up.

He looked down at his body, raising his arms to examine them as well. He really was a mess. Covered in scars from battle, he was quite a sight. He remembered the nights he spent with Ginny while hunting horcruxes, she was never bothered by the way his body looked. She had accumulated a few scars of her own along the way, fighting beside Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Harry. Then stood by them, even after the night Ron and Hermione died. His thoughts, as they often did, drifted to those friends he had lost. He missed them dearly and hoped there was a way he could return to his own time once this was over.

While he was more than happy to be able to form friendships with his parents, and meet the rest of his family, it just wasn't the same. These people are wonderful and Harry truly does care for them, but this James and Lily are not his parents, this Sirius is not his godfather. Harry is older than all of them now and doesn't consider this Remus as the mentor, and later, the Alpha that he considered the Remus of his past to be. He hoped that they could figure out how that necklace worked and use it to find a way to send him back. But even he knew the odds of that were slim.

Turning the water off, Harry stepped out of the shower into the steamy bathroom to dry off. Wiping the steam off and looking into the mirror, he decided that he should probably change his eye color. He remembered the spell from 6th year when Lavender and Pavarati learned the spell by modifying the incantation from one of their transfiguration books. Holding his wand in front of his face, he removed his glasses and stared at the tip.

"Oculus Pigmento."

Harry felt his eyes begin to tingle, then a feeling of warmth spread out from the center. When he looked in the mirror, his eyes were grey like Sirius's. Harry cursed under his breath, he had been trying for brown like Charlus. But considering Fleamont and Charlus's mother had been a Black, he decided he could pull off the grey color. He picked up his dingy and worn out clothes casting the scourgify charm on each piece before putting them on. He decided that tomorrow he would venture to Diagon Alley to get some new robes and other clothes.

Excited by the thought of venturing out to into public without fear of being recognized, Harry went about his morning routine.

Sitting down at the small table in his room, Harry tapped the surface with his wand summoning breakfast. After a few moments food appeared and Harry hungrily ate all of it. He had always been underweight, much to 's displeasure, and living on the run for the past four years had done nothing to help that. Food was hard to come by. Whenever they got close to a muggle town, they would break into the grocery stores in the middle of the night, taking food and leaving money on the counters. Due to improvements made in security systems though, alarms went off and authorities were notified as soon as the doors were opened. This made it difficult for them to grab very much before they were caught, also causing them to call unwanted attention. The corrupted ministry would catch wind of five teenagers robbing a muggle grocery store, leaving galleons on the counter, and apparating before apprehended by the police.

So they tried to avoid stocking up on food for as long as they could, they couldn't risk alerting Voldemort to where they were hiding.

Checking the watch the Weasleys had given him for his seventeenth birthday, Harry realized that the train would be leaving from Hogsmeade any second now. Just to be sure, Harry took out his map and checked that the castle was completely empty of students before he left his room, leaving his cloak in his pouch.

He had almost reached the Headmaster's office when he heard a voice behind him.

"Mister Potter! What do you think you are doing here? The train has left the station by now!" Professor McGonagal said as she stomped toward Harry.

"I...was just... I uhhh.. I need to speak to Professor Dumbledore!" Harry said as he tried to back away from her before she realized he was not James.

"And you pick now to do that?" She retorted, clearly exasperated. "James Charlus Potter you have had all year to speak with..."

Charlus? Harry thought to himself, he wondered if it was a family tradition to use your father's name as your son's middle name. He would have to ask James or Charlus tonight. The fact that he could actually talk to his family about such things excited Harry. Then he realized that McGonagal had stopped talking and was reaching for her wand, her eyes narrowed in his direction. Before she had time to fully raise her wand, Harry, acting on instinct, drew his wand and disarmed her, catching her wand in the air. Her eyes grew wide, he had disarmed her, but not fired it so hard as to knock her back. He looked back at his old professor, unsure of what to say.

McGonagal was confused when the stranger disarmed her but didn't attack, he just stood there like he wasn't sure what his next move should be.

"Who are you?" The stern professor demanded

"I should probably let Professor Dumbledore explain that." Harry replied. She eyed him speculatively as he returned her wand and gestured toward the office and they started walking together.

"My name is Harry." He offered, trying to cut the tension. But McGonagal just looked at him, trying to figure him out. So he decided to walk in silence the rest of the way. Once inside the office Albus greeted the two of them.

"Minerva, I see you have met Harry." He observed

"Albus" she replied in her no nonsense tone. "What is going on?"

"Harry, I suppose this is as good a time as any to establish you as secret keeper."

Harry nodded his head and took out his wand.

"Minerva" Albus continued "what we are about to tell you is very secret information, the Order will be informed at tomorrow's meeting under the protection of the Fidelius Charm. Since you are here, however, we will inform you now if you wish?."

She hesitantly agreed.

Harry raised his wand and said "abscondita fortitudo" a sliver mist shot out of his wand and swirled in the air.

"My name is Harry Potter" he said confidently to Professor McGonagal. "I was born on July 31 1980." Her eyes widens in shock at this statement. "I am descended from Fleamont Potter." Harry hoped no one caught on to that vague half truth. "A dark artifact belonging to Bellatrix Lestrange sent me back in time." He finished.

Harry pointedly looked over at Dumbledore and the old man swirled the silver mist with his wand, then pointed it directly at Harry's chest. "Absconde consilium" he said as the mist stopped swirling over head, and gently followed the path set by the Elder Wand straight into Harry's chest.

"Latet" Harry said after all of the mist had entered his chest. He was now his own secret keeper.

Albus, invited Minerva to sit down, then filled her in on Harry's sudden appearance in his office, the proof they had that Harry was telling the truth, the meeting yesterday with the Potters, and their plan for defeating Voldemort.

"Horcruxes?" She asked, horrified at the idea.

"Yes." Harry replied. "Right now he has five

McGonagal squared her shoulders. "You know where they all are?"

"Not all of them right now, but I know where they will be in the next few years. There is one here in the castle."

"Here?" She gasped and looked at Albus. "In the castle?"

Harry explained the Room or Requirement housing the room of hidden objects. He also told them the story of the Gray Lady and Bloody Baron, about what Tom did with the diadem.

Minerva insisted that she accompany them on their search of the room. So a few minutes later Dumbledore and McGonagal were watching Harry pace back and forth in front of the wall where the door would appear. After his third pass the door appeared and Harry opened it for the other two to enter.

Endless towers of junk greeted them when they entered the room.

Mounds of desks, piles of books, contraband, and parchment was everywhere.

Minerva felt overwhelmed but Albus wandered around the room like he was a child let loose in Honeydukes.

Harry started at the door and tried to retrace his steps from so long ago, leaving a trail of red light burned into the floor with his wand as he went to keep him from going in circles. It took all morning but eventually he found it, levitating it up so that the two professors could see it. It seemed to be pulsating, an aura of dark magic was radiating off of the beautiful artifact making it difficult to look at. Dumbledore opened a satchel and Harry lowered it in.

Back in Dumbledore's office, Harry held the sword.

"Are you ready? It won't go quietly." Harry warned

"He won't know what we are doing will he?" She asked Harry "he won't feel a piece of his soul being destroyed?

"No." Harry confirmed "the piece of his soul still in his body is too unstable to feel anything ."

She wasn't sure if that made her feel better or worse. "Alright then." She said and readied herself for the unexpected.

Dumbledore nodded his head. Harry squared his feet and brought the sword above his head swing it it down and colliding with the diadem at his feet. A heart stopping scream erupted from the small jeweled tiara, and a cloud of black smoke came pouring out, twisting and turning until a morbid face formed in the cloud. It's mouth opened unnaturally wide as it screamed and threw itself through Harry and into the wall behind him. It was gone in the blink of an eye.

Harry looked up, disheveled and windswept. "Well... one down."

Later that evening was bustling around the large house cleaning and rearranging everything in sight. Their tiny house elf was following her around the room, nervously tugging on her impossibly large ears.

"Mrs. Potter!" The little elf squeaked "you is not letting Pipsy to be doing her job!"

The elf was obviously not happy with her mistress.

"Oh I'm so sorry Pipsy!" Dorea stopped in her tracks and looked down at the tiny elf.

"I'm just so nervous! Oh is wish we knew what time he would be here!" She said as she ran her hands through her graying hair, then realized what she had done and began patting it back into place.

Pipsy took the dusting rag from her mistress and popped into another room to continue cleaning. Dorea paced the room, looking at the fireplace every few seconds. James and Charlus had both tied to distract her to no avail.

Sirius came down stairs to join everyone in the sitting room.

"Mrs. Potter?" He asked "is that cake cooled enough to ice yet?"

"Oh yes! The cake!" She said as she followed Sirius though the doors toward the kitchen.

"How are you feeling James?" Charlus asked his only son.

"I'm alright..." James responded. Charlus raised his eyebrow, silently telling his so to go on.

"It's just..." James huffed and sat down across the coffee table from his father. "I'm 18 and he's 21. I don't see him as my son."

"Naturally." Charlus replied.

"Is that wrong of me? What if he needs me to be a father to him? What if... what if I let him down?"

Charlus took a deep breath and walked over to stand next to James. Placing his hand on James's shoulder he said. "James, from the sound of things last night, he has raised himself, rather well I must add. He doesn't need a father now, he needs love, love from a family. You created a family for Sirius. Remus and Peter needed it to, not as badly as Sirius needed it, but needed none the less." James smiled a small unsure smile at his dad. "You won't disappoint him James, just love him however you can and that will be enough."

"Thanks Dad." James smiled up at his father

As Charlus was walking back to his seat, the fireplace lit up and Harry stepped out.

"Hello Harry" Charlus greeted. Followed by James's greeting "hiya Harry!"

Harry smiled awkwardly "hope I haven't kept you waiting." He said

"Don't worry son." Charlus said as he walked over and patted Harry on the back.

"Was that the floo?" Dorea yelled excitedly, running into the room wearing a frilly pink apron and a smile on her face. Sirius was behind her wearing a bright scarlet apron of his own and holding a mixing bowl. "Alright there Harry?" Sirius asked as he licked the spoon in his hand and put it back in the bowl.

"Oh Harry sweetheart come in! Come in!" She rushed over and hugged him. She was much shorter than he was so he had to stoop to properly return the hug.

"Let me have your bags dear and we will send them upstairs!" Dorea said as she released him.

"I don't have any bags." Harry said sheepishly. "I keep it all in here" he showed them the pouch he wore around his neck.

"Brilliant." Charlus said as he examined the small bag. "Very practical." He smiled at Harry and Harry smiled back. He was able to get a good look at the real life version of the couple he had seen in the mirror a decade ago. Charlus was the same height as Harry, James was a bit shorter. His eyes were hazel and it was obvious his hair had once been black but it was now mostly gray, but it was still thick and messy like James and Harry. Dorea was a very petite woman with salt and pepper colored hair pulled back into a loose bun. Her eyes were a cheery dark blue and they crinkled in the corners when she smiled.

"Are you hungry Harry? I'm sure dinner is almost ready." James said as he stood

"I am actually." Harry responded

"Well let's go to the table!" Dorea suggested. "Sirius, go put that bowl in the kitchen and ask Fletcher when dinner will be ready please." She handed Sirius her apron and the Potters made there way into the dining room.

It was a lovely room with cheery yellow walls, a solid oak table and chairs with cream colored cushions, large windows looking out onto the garden, and a glittering chandelier hanging above the table.

It wasn't long before Sirius came through the door carrying a large pot of stew with a wrinkly old elf, carrying a basket of bread, shuffling along behind.

"Master Sirius should not be carrying the food!" The feeble old elf Harry guessed to be Fletcher was grumbling. "That is Fletcher's work!"

"Yes Fletcher, but your cooking is so delicious that I need to do some kind of exercise or I'll get so fat you'll have to put my shoes on for me!" Sirius replied loudly,as he sat the heavy pot in the middle of the table. Fletcher smiled at the compliment from Sirius.

"Fletcher!" Charlus practically yelled and the old elf shuffled over to where the head of the house was seated. "Fletcher this is my nephew Harold Potter! He is my brother Fleamont's son."

"Fleamont's son?" The elf questioned as he looked at Harry. "Fletcher was not aware Fleamont had any children." The elf moved to stand in front of Harry to bow. "Fletcher is very pleased to meet the new master Potter." He said bowing as low as his old bones would allow. "Fletcher lives to serve the House of Potter."

Harry bowed his head to Fletcher. "I am pleased to meet you as well Fletcher. Please call me Harry." He followed his grandfather's lead and spoke loudly, he assumed the old elf was losing his hearing.

"Yes Master Harry." Fletcher responded. Smiling he left the room to eat his own dinner with Pipsy in the kitchen. Being a house elf to the Potters his whole life, Fletcher was accustomed to being treated very well, it always made him happy to be treated with such respect and kindness. Harry was to busy watching Sirius pour him a bowl of stew to notice the look the rest of the table was sharing. Harry's kindness towards the family elf warmed their hearts.

Sirius was sat next to Harry and he dished up a bowl for each of them before passing it on.

"So Harry." Charlus began "were you and Professor Dumbledore able to find what you were looking for today?"

"Yes Sir." Harry responded after swallowing the food that was in his mouth. "We destroyed it shortly before I left."

"Fantastic!" Said James " so only four are left?"

"Yes, those will be harder to get our hands on." Harry replied.

"Where are they?" Dorea asked.

"One is in Lucious Malfoy's possession. Another is in a shack in Little Hangleton, that will probably be the one we go after next. The third is in the Lestrange vault in Gringotts, hopefully we can find a way to get that one with out breaking in this time."

"This time?" James repeated. "Do you mean to tell me you broke into Gringotts before?" The shock was evident in his voice.

"Well we had to steal one of the horcruxes, and the goblins weren't about to just hand it over. We had no choice." Harry defended.

"You actually managed to steal from Gringotts?" Charlus exclaimed, half horrified, half proud. "How?"

"I made a deal with a goblin, I would give him the sword of Gryffindor if he helped us. So my friend Hermione took Polyjuice potion and entered the bank as Bellatrix, we used glamours on my best mate to change his appearance, and I was under the cloak with the goblin. I cast the imperious curse on the goblin at the counter and he took us down to the vault. Once we got what we needed the goblin double crossed us, he took the sword and called for the guards."

"How did you escape?" Sirius asked.

Harry smiled. "On the back of the dragon."

"Merlin!" Charlus exclaimed, sitting back in his chair.

"Hopefully we can find an easier way!" James said "I doubt you could do that twice!"

"What about the last horcrux?" Dorea asked "you said there were four left?"

"That one may be tricky.." Harry trailed off.

"How so?" Charlus asked

"We will have to save Regulus..." Harry said softly looking at Sirius.

"What do you mean? Does he die too?"

"Yes, I'm sorry Sirius." Harry tried to break the news gently "but he is capable of being saved! He turned on Voldemort at the last minute and that's how he died. Regulus discovered what Voldemort was making and he tried to destroy it. He died a hero."

"We can save him?" Sirius asked

"Yes, he's good Sirius, I promise."

They discussed the plan a little more and then they talked about the family, filling Harry in on all he needs to know to pass as Fleamont's son. Harry found out it was a Potter tradition to name you son's middle name after your father. So if any one asked, Harry's new name was Harold Henry Potter.

After dinner they returned to the sitting room.

"Would it be possible to make a trip to Diagon Alley tomorrow?" Harry asked "I really need some robes."

"Of course dear!" Replied Dorea "we can leave right after breakfast!"

"And don't worry about prices." Added Charlus. "Just get everything you need."

"Oh I have money!" Harry replied

"No, you save your money! We will buy you robes and muggle clothes if you need them." Charlus argued.

Harry smiled a very mischevious smile. "Really it's ok, I have the entire contents of the Potter and Black family vaults in here." He patted the pouch around his neck.

Everyone's jaws dropped

"You have what?" James exclaimed

"Well I told you that Sirius became Lord Black.." Charlus and Dorea were shocked at this news but Sirius just grimaced.

"Well you left me your sole heir in your will, so I inherited everything." Sirius smiled at that. His mother would be furious if she knew that the Potter side ended up with the family fortune.

"After I broke into Gringotts the first time" Harry began and Charlus just shook his head in bemusement. "Voldemort attacked the goblins, killing most of them out of anger. I knew I would never be allowed inside the bank again after what I'd done so... I broke in again and put everything in a trunk with an endless extension charm. It was much easier the second time because security was so lax" Harry told them.

"Like I said Harry" Sirius spoke up "someday we will no longer be shocked by the things you say."

They spent the rest of the evening in the sitting room talking and getting to know one another. They were ecstatic the hear about Harry's place on the Quidditch team in his first year and his captaincy in his sixth year. By the time Harry was shown to his room he was exhausted, but happier than he had been in a long time.


	10. Chapter 10 Diagon Alley

Chapter 10 Diagon Alley

The next morning came quickly for Harry. Even though they had stayed up quite late last night visiting, Harry found himself up before the sun yet again. He sat up in bed and stretched. The bed was the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in. That thought made Harry chuckle to himself, of course it was the most comfortable bed he'd ever slept it. He went from sleeping in a cot under the stair to sleeping on Dudley's old mattress, that the little porker had flattened. His bed at Hogwarts had been just fine, and he never had a problem sleeping on the extra cot in Ron's room, but this bed definitely took first place.

The room was quite beautiful as well. The walls were a cool gray with white trim along the ceiling and around the windows. A beautiful, circular light fixture clung to the ceiling in the middle of the room. The wooden bed had an intricately carved headboard and dark red duvet made from soft fabric with pillows to match. There was a small desk near the window and an old dresser against the wall, near the foot of the bed. Harry, who didn't have any pajamas, had borrowed some from James last night. He was a bit taller than his father so the pants barely reached his ankles and he had to cinch in the waist because he was much thinner than James.

Harry decided to wander downstairs and see if he could scrounge up a cup of tea.

He made his way down stairs and walked past the sitting room and the dinning room to the kitchen in the back of the house.

It was empty when Harry got there so he started opening the cabinets until he found the kettle and a mug. He had just put the kettle on the stove when he heard soft footsteps padding into the room with him.

"Master James!" A small voice began to chastise him. "You know Fletcher is not happy when you rummage through his kitchen!"

Harry turned around and the little elf squeaked and covered her mouth when she realized her mistake.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Harry said quickly "I didn't know Fletcher didn't like people in the kitchen!" He started to put things back

"Pipsy is very sorry to be yelling at the new Master Potter!" The little elf said fearfully. "Pipsy thought you was Master James!"

"Don't worry." Harry replied "I get that a lot actually. I'm Harry by the way." He smiled as he introduced himself.

Pipsy smiled, relieved that this new master was just as nice as the rest of the family.

"My names is Pipsy, master Harry." She bowed very low.

"Well it's very nice to meet you Pipsy." Harry said bowing his head.

Pipsy quickly ushered Harry onto a stool in the kitchen and seated him at the island in the middle of the room and finished making his tea for him. Muttering to herself the entire time, something about why the Potters even had elves if they just planned on doing everything theirselves. Harry smiled and decided he liked Pipsy. She was quite the bossy little thing. She reminded him of Hermione and that made him smile.

"So Pipsy, how long have you been here?"

"Pipsy came here when Master James was very small!" She happily announced "Master James, was quite the handful and Masters Charlus and Dorea needed help. Pipsy's mother belonged to the McGonagal family, they didn't need another elf, so when Pipsy was old enough, their daughter suggested I come here!" Pipsy happily recalled the story to Harry as she bustled around the kitchen.

"Their daughter?" Harry casually asked.

"Yes! She works at Hogwarts now. She is being very good friend to "

Harry was surprised that he never knew Professor McGonagal was friends with his grandma. Before he could dwell on it though, the door opened and James walked in.

"Good morning Harry." He greeted.

"Good morning, you're up early." Harry replied.

"Early riser." James explained "looks like something we have in common." James pointed out and Harry just smiled.

James sat down next to Harry, Pipsy sat a cup of tea in front of him.

"Thank you Pipsy!" He smiled "so did you sleep alright?" He turned towards Harry, taking a sip.

"I did." Harry replied honestly "I slept quite well actually." He sounded a bit surprised and James smiled, glad to hear the small bit of good news.

"Brilliant! Be sure and let mum know, would you? She spent all day yesterday fretting over every detail of that room." James chuckled.

"She did?" Harry asked.

"Well.. yeah... she wanted everything to be set nice for you. She wasn't sure how to decorate the room and that worried her." James tentatively explained

"Wow" Harry whispered, completely bemused that someone would go through all that trouble for him.

"She just wanted you to feel at home." James smiled at Harry.

"Well" Harry cleared his throat. "I see why Sirius came here after he ran away. He always told me how wonderful you all were. It's nice to see that he was right."

James's heart broke. Harry hadn't yet told them about his childhood, but he didn't have too. James could tell it wasn't good. He had met Petunia last Christmas, his first impression was that she was a right bitch. Snobbish and condescending, she pointedly ignored James the entire evening. Lily had told him about her sister's jealousy and spiteful hatred toward magic, but would she really direct those feeling into the innocent orphaned child of her dead sister? He wasn't sure if he should bring it up yet.

"Well..." James said instead. "It's true, it might be unexpected, but you have a home here."

Harry smiled "Thanks James."

The two young men sat at talked until Fletcher came in to start breakfast and kicked them out of the kitchen. Technically he had only kicked James out, Harry just followed.

"Why aren't you allowed in the kitchen?" Harry asked. "Pipsy had a fit when she saw me in there until she realized I wasn't you."

James looked down and rubbed the back of his neck as the two stood aimlessly in the hallway. "Well... long story short, I'm not a very good cook." He said sheepishly.

Harry just laughed. James loved the sound of Harry's laughter.

"Apparently I leave a mess, and I may have set a few fires." He continued. "How about you? Can you cook?"

Harry nodded. "I did most all the cooking at my aunt and uncles house growing up."

James filed that bit of information away, but decided not to comment on it.

"Mum and Fletcher tried to teach me." He replied as they started walking down the hallway "when Sirius moved in Mum decided it was a skill we needed to learn. Sirius picked it up right away but I always get distracted or I add ingredients I'm not suppose to."

Harry chuckled "well at least you tried! My best mate could eat you out of house and home but he always expected someone else to feed him!" Harry smiled at the memory then his smile faded and he stopped walking. A puzzled look grew on his face.

"What's wrong?" James asked, turning to look back where Harry had stopped.

"Nothing." Harry started walking again.

James gave him a look that said he knew better. "Harry, what happened?"

Harry took a small breath "it's not a big deal really, it's just, that was the first time since they died, that I've been able to think about them and smile." Harry didn't look at James as he admitted this.

"That's good!" James patted Harry's shoulder "they wouldn't want you to be sad forever."

They had made their way into the sitting room and sat at either end of the same couch. They both curled their legs underneath them, unknowingly, assuming the same position. They looked like mirror opposites sitting across from one another.

"They were in love." Harry said

"You're best friends?" James asked. He didn't know much about these people who Harry had spent so much time around. He didn't want to pry if Harry didn't want to talk, but since Harry was initiating the conversation, James decided it was ok.

"That must have been awkward for you." He laughed lightly and so did Harry.

"Not really, more frustrating than anything. Besides... I was in love with his little sister." James laughed out loud at that and Harry laughed with him, remembering how much he loved all of those people. "They refused to admit it to each other, we were about a year into the horcrux hunt before they finally made a move, and that was only because we were in the middle of a battle and they thought we were going to die." Harry shook his head, then quietly added "Then they died, about a year later."

"What happened to them?" James asked.

"Fenrir Greyback." Harry replied, malice lacing his voice, James paled.

"He infected Ron." Harry sighed "I told you all that the ministry had traps set up during the full moon to catch unregistered werewolves?" James nodded, acknowledging that he remembered. "Well, we had nowhere to go to keep Ron safe during his first transformation, all the safe houses had been discovered, and we were living in a tent, we couldn't get the ingredients for wolfsbane without being caught."

James wondered what wolfsbane was but he didn't want to interrupt.

"None of us were animagi yet, so we couldn't help him. We found a cave and tried to lock him in there but... It didn't work. He broke out. He..." Harry's voice became thick with emotion. "He killed Hermione."

James was shocked, he couldn't imagine what it would feel like if Remus had killed one of them. He knew Remus would never forgive himself.

"The next morning, when Ron realized what he'd done... He killed himself." Harry wiped his face.

"Right in front of me, I tried to stop him..." Harry took a shallow breath. "I can keep that from happening though. Even if I never get back to my own time, I'll make sure it doesn't happen in this time." He took a sip of his, now cold, tea. "I'll enjoy killing Greyback again though. Harry said, far too casually for such an admission.

"You'll have to beat me to it." James replied just as casually.

It wasn't long before the rest of the family made their way down for breakfast. They were all seated around the table when Sirius came grumbling in. Harry had forgotten how much of a night owl Sirius was, he was most definitely not a morning person. One look at Sirius and Harry erupted in laughter "Oh Sirius! I forgot how much I enjoyed your hair in the mornings!" Everyone except Sirius chuckled at this, and Dorea attempted to smooth out Sirius's unruly mane, and to Harry's surprise, Sirius let her.

"There you are dear, much better!" She said once she had calmed it down a bit.

"At least mine only looks this way in the mornings, you lot have bed head all day long!" Sirius retorted, gesturing towards Harry and James.

"Mine is almost long enough to tie back." Harry said while attempting to pull his hair into a low ponytail. "If Fletcher saved some of the grease from this bacon I could style it like Lucious Malfoy!"

The entire table erupted in laughter, Dorea choked on her tea.

"Merlin no! I won't allow a Potter to look like a greasy prat!" Charlus laughed.

After breakfast Harry dressed in some of James's robes. James had some that were to long for him so they decided to try them on Harry. After deciding that they would work, Harry headed down stairs to meet Dorea before flooing to Diagon Alley.

It was just as Harry remembered, witches and wizards were milling about in every direction, gathering in front of store windows. The smell of potions and owls greeted Harry as he stepped out of the floo and smiled. It would be strange to walk around without being recognized, no one whispering or pointing at his lightning bolt scar. Dorea emerged just after Harry and they started to walk down the street.

"Where would you like to go first Harry?"

"I'm not in a hurry today, should we just start here and work our way down?" He suggested.

Dorea smiled warmly. "That works for me."

They took their time in each store, Harry bought a quill, parchment, and a few books.

They were still in Flourish and Blotts when a tall, brunette woman walked up to Dorea.

" " the woman greeted "how are you?"

" ! I am well how are?" Dorea returned the greeting, kissing the woman's cheek.

"I am doing well, thank you." replied then turned toward Harry. Her eyes widened a bit as she realized he was not James.

" , this is my nephew Harold. Fleamont's son." She politely introduced Harry. Dorea looked confident, but Harry noticed she started to pat her hair.

Harry recognized the last name and assumed this was Theodore's grandmother.

"Very pleased to meet you ." Harry bowed at the waist. Dorea smiled, relieved at Harry's behavior in front of the pure blood aristocrat.

"Yes, it's nice to meet you as well ." She smiled pleasantly but Harry felt her eyes linger on the two scars visible on his face and neck. His hair was getting very long and he had combed it back, showing off his forehead. No one here knew about the scar so he didn't worry about hiding it.

"I wasn't aware Fleamont and Euphemia had any children." politely remarked.

"Not many were aware, , Mother and Father preferred to keep our lives private. "

"I see." She replied before turning back to Dorea. "I hope you received my invitation to our Summer Soirée?"

"I did receive it, thank you. I sent our acceptance response with our owl just this morning! I'm sure it will be waiting on you when you arrive home." She happily replied.

After a few more moments of small talk, Harry and Dorea paid for their items and left the store. As Harry was shrinking their bags and putting them in his pockets, Dorea leaned in and spoke quietly. " runs the rumor mill among the pure bloods, by the end of the night they will all be aware of your existence."

"Is that bad?" Harry asked, they weren't exactly keeping him a secret, this is why they created his cover story.

"No..." She replied but she didn't sound completely sure of that. "Now that you've been introduced though, it would be rude if you don't attend the party." She cautioned.

"Well I suppose I'll need some robes."

They were just finishing in Madam Malkins, Harry had been fitted for an entire wardrobe under Dorea's watchful eye. He was never very concerned with his clothes, and seeing as he wasn't aware of the styles of this time period, he allowed Dorea to dress him and he took her advice on what looked good. Once he had purchased all that he needed they paid and left the building. They were walking towards the Leaky Cauldron for lunch when Harry spotted two men coming their direction. He recognized the taller one immediately as Antonin Dolohov. Harry subtlety moved Dorea so that Harry was between her and the two Death Eaters coming their way.

Harry pretended not to notice the two as the walked by, but he saw them eyeing him curiously. Dorea noticed what Harry had done, she also saw the two men take notice of Harry, but she continued on as if nothing had happened.

They made it to the Leaky Cauldron and sat down for lunch.

"Are you alright?" She asked, after making sure no one was listening.

"Yes I'm fine, just a bit uneasy." He answered honestly.

They decided not to dwell on it and continued to enjoy their morning together.

"Did you sleep well?" She asked causally but Harry noticed her hand move to her hair again, but like last time, she stopped and patted her hair instead of running her fingers through it.

"I slept very well." He replied.

"Oh good, I'm glad you found the room comfortable."

Remembering what James had said that morning, Harry responded.

"The room is very nice, I like the touch of Gryffindor red." Harry smiled and Dorea smiled back, relieved.

They finished their lunch and decided to return home to prepare for the Order meeting that night.

 ** _A/N- I'm glad to see all the positive reviews! I feel like the story has slowed down a bit, but there were a few things I needed establish._**

 ** _How about Ron and Hermione's demise? Next chapter will be about the Order meeting! And maybe some adventure.. ;)_**


	11. Chapter 11 Interrupted Meeting

Chapter 11 Interrupted Meeting

Harry entered the sitting room to find James and Sirius waiting for him by the fire place.

"You ready?" Sirius asked, they all seemed a bit nervous.

Harry nodded and James grabbed the pot of floo powder.

"Where is this meeting again?" Harry asked.

"The basement of one of the members." James responded as he stepped into the fire place. He released the powder then called out the address and the other two followed suit.

They seemed to be the last to arrive, the room was already full of people. Harry recognized some from his past, others from the picture he had of the first Order.

"Is that Mad Eye?" Harry smiled and nodded his head in the direction of the old Auror who, at the moment, had his back turned to three young men on the opposite side of the room.

"Who?" James asked, looking where Harry had indicated with a confused expression.

"Mad Eye Moody." Harry replied in a tone that said it should have been obvious. How many people have the nickname Mad Eye? Harry thought to himself.

"You mean Alastor Moody? The Head of the Auror department?" Sirius asked, equally as confused as James. Then Alastor turned to face the door and Harry saw that the old Auror didn't have his signature magical eye quite yet.

"Oh... He's still got his eye" Harry said quietly as the three made their way over to Peter, Remus, Lily, and two others that Harry recognized as the Longbottoms.

"What happens to his eye?" Sirius whispered back.

"He loses it in a duel, gets a magical replacement, it's very handy even if it is a bit disturbing." Harry pulled a face.

The other two didn't have time to respond, they had reached their group of friends and James excitedly greeted Lily with a kiss.

"Hello Love!" He smiled down at her

She returned his smile "hello!" She said, then she turned to look at Harry, a surprised expression came across her face as she looked at the scarred face of the man who looked just like James but with gray eyes and overgrown hair.

"Uhh Lily, this is my relative Harry."

"Nice to meet you!" Lily smiled and offered her hand which Harry accepted.

"It's nice to finally meet you Lily, I've heard a lot about you."

"All good I hope!" Lily chuckled in response.

Harry smiled "of course!" He responded. Of course it was all good, no one, not even Snape was able to say anything bad about his mother.

"Harry" James smiled as he pulled Harry in by the shoulder. "This our friend Frank and his fiancé Alice!" Harry couldn't help but smile at the two familiar faces, this time though, their faces were full of life! Their expressions, instead of blank, were ones of pleasant curiosity as they extended their hands to greet the newcomer.

"This is Harry Potter." James finished

"Pleased to meet you Harry." Alice said as she shook Harry's hand.

Frank looked a bit skeptical. "I've never heard of a Harry Potter before, exactly where have they been hiding you?" He smiled but Harry could tell the Auror was only half joking.

Harry didn't have time to respond though because two identical men came up behind Frank on either side, throwing their arms around his shoulders.

"Is this bloke giving you trouble?" The one on the left asked Harry.

"Don't let him scare you, he's full of hot air." The one on the right said, ruffling up Frank's brown hair.

Frank smiled at the two men. "You gits are still alive I see... I was beginning to wonder, I hadn't heard from either of you in days!"

Harry couldn't place these two, he knew he didn't know either from his past, but they looked familiar. They were broad and quite muscular, average height with warm brown hair and blue eyes.

James saw Harry's puzzled expression and understood immediately that Harry didn't know the two. James knew how close Harry was with the Weasleys in his past, if he didn't recognize Gideon and Fabian, that meant they hadn't survived the first war. The thought of these two smiling young men being taken too soon deeply saddened James. He pushed that thought away though, he couldn't keep comparing Harry's past to their present, it was going to be different this time.

"Name's Fabion!" The one on the right extended his hand toward Harry. Recognition immediately hit Harry, he hid it well but James noticed.

"This ugly brute is my brother, Gideon!" Fabion smiled, slapping his brother's shoulder a little too hard.

"Gideon Prewett at your service." The other one extended his hand and Harry grasped it.

"Harry Potter." He smiled, but then Gideon's grasp became a little to tight and he turned Harry's hand in his, slightly, to examine Harry's watch. James didn't understand why Harry's eyes had grown wide, or why Harry had tried to pull his hand out of the larger man's grasp until he noticed the identical watches on both the clasped hands.

"Say mate, you have good taste in... wait a minute.." Gideon exclaimed as he turned Harry's hand even more and everyone saw that every scratch and dent in Gideon's watch was mirrored by Harry's. Even the second from the last hole, where Gideon had his latched, was used and worn out on Harry's watch. Harry had his cinched tighter around his much smaller wrist, but it was obviously the same watch.

"What is this?" Gideon asked loudly, getting the attention of most of the room.

"Uhm... Well it's uh..." Harry stammered, this wasn't exactly how he wanted to explain everything.

"This!" Albus announced, pulling everyone's attention to himself. "Is the reason I called this meeting." He gestured for everyone to sit at the long table. Harry took this as his cue to move to the front with Dumbledore. Gideon reluctantly let him go and Harry moved through the small crowd of strangers to stand next to Albus.

"This is Harry Potter, a relative of Charlus." The old man began. "What we are about to reveal is, without a doubt, our secret weapon to winning this war."

A few whispers broke out, and people turned to one another with surprised and hopeful looks.

"To ensure this secret" Albus continued "is kept hidden, we have used the Fidelius charm, Harry is the secret keeper."

All eyes in the room fell, expectantly on Harry.

Harry coughed a bit to clear his throat then began.

"There's really no way to ease into this... I'm uhm.. From the future" Harry said, trying to sound as confident as possible. The members of the Order were shocked to say the least. Lily looked at James for conformation, to which he simply nodded his head. Shouts declaring time travel to be impossible were heard among voices asking Dumbledore if he truly believed this story. Albus silenced the room quickly, by raising his hand. "I have questioned Harry extensively under veritaserum and have viewed many of his memories. I assure you, he is telling the truth." Albus then motioned for Harry to continue.

"Four days ago, on June 27 2002, I picked up an object similar to a time turner, but obviously more powerful. I landed in the same spot on June 27 1978." A few people still looked doubtful, but Harry decided that he didn't care. "The war was still going strong in 2002, worse even... The future, it's not much of a future really." Harry's voice trailed off and the rest of the members present at the meeting looked at him warily. "Voldemort seized control of the ministry." Most everyone in the room flinched at the sound of the name, but Harry continued. "What was left of the Order fled the country, I couldn't leave though... Before I was born there was a prophecy, long story short, Voldemort" everyone flinched again, James tried his hardest not to flinch, it was only a name after all. "killed my family and accidentally marked me as his equal." Harry brushed his hair back, revealing his scar as he spoke. "Either he will kill me, or I will him.. The prophecy said that either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives" Harry quoted.

Everyone silently contemplated this information, did this mean the end of the war? "Your watch, Gideon, was a present from on my seventeenth birthday." Harry looked towards the Prewett brothers sitting next to Arthur Weasley, all looking extremely surprised by this revelation. Rubbing the back of his neck, Harry continued to explain. "Like I said, I didn't have any family to speak of, I became friends with the youngest Weasley son and, sort of got adopted into the family." Arthur smiled a very small smile, that sounded exactly like the sort of thing he and Molly would do.

"She.. uhh... she wanted me to have your watch." Harry finished, looking down at the time piece on his wrist.

It was obvious by Harry's tone ,and the fact that Molly had his watch, that Gideon was dead in Harry's past.

"So how did...do...I die?" Gideon asked frantically. Fabian looked just as upset as his brother.

"Antonin Dolohov." Harry practically spat the name.

"When?" Fabian pleaded, desperate to prevent his brother's death.

Harry thought back to the moment, years before, during the Christmas holiday spent in Grimmauld Place, when he and Sirius were looking at Harry's picture of the first Order.

 _"Those two there are Molly's brothers!" Sirius pointed out, "they were the on the Quidditch team mine and your dad's third year. Fabian was our captain." He smiled nostalgically, then Harry noticed his Godfather's smile begin to disappear. "Our first Order meeting to attend, right after we finished school," Sirius continued "We were ambushed. This was before we decided to establish a headquarters under the Fidelius charm. They would move the meetings to different locations every time, to throw anyone off anyone who was watching. It didn't work though, a group of Death Eaters caught wind of the location one night. They set up wards so that no one could apparate, the floo was the only way out." Harry didn't want to hear anymore of this tragic story, but he got the feeling Sirius needed to talk, so he stayed quiet. "They were killed by a follower of Voldemort named Antonin Dolohov. That was also the night Mad Eye lost his eye. Your father saved my life that night." Sirius smiled again, though this time not as bright, then handed the picture back to Harry._

Harry cursed at his own stupidity. How could he forget?

"It's not safe here!" He tried to control the panic in his voice. "Use the floo and get out of here now! Do NOT come back! Does everyone understand that?"

He wasn't sure when, but he knew they would be attacked. He hoped they could all get to safety before they were ambushed.

Some nodded, and everyone quickly made their way to the escape.

"Is anyone from the McKinnon family here?" Harry yelled out.

A young, slender blonde woman around Harry's age and an older man, he guessed to be her father, looked up immediately.

"Yes." The woman replied quickly.

"Go straight home!" Harry demanded "keep all of your family there and put your house under the Fidiellus, send a patronus to Dumbledore with the secret but do not tell anyone else!" The man nodded and the two disappeared into the green flames.

There were only a few people left when there was a crash from upstairs. Thundering footsteps trampled over head as the sound of heavy boots searched the small house. Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and when he turned he, again, came face to face with the Elder Wand. Albus quickly cast a wordless glamour charm and Harry felt his features begin to change.

Then the door flew open with a crash, seven or eight Death Eaters, Harry didn't have time to count, charged into the room sending curses flying. Lily and Remus were side by side, fiercely dueling one of the masked men. Albus made short work of immobilizing one and Harry took another. Then Harry sent a powerful stunner at the one Lily was fighting, knocking him out cold.

The Death Eaters were outnumbered, and with Albus, Harry, and Alastor fighting, they didn't stand a chance. Realizing that they were losing, one of them raised his sleeve and touched his mark with his wand, then returned to the fight with added vengeance. They began to wildly blast off deadly curses, one hit the table sending splintered pieces of wood in every direction. Harry barely managed to put up a shield charm around himself and Sirius before it was too late. To his left he heard a voice cry out in pain, the sight he saw almost turned his stomach. Alastor, though now Harry assumed it was safe to begin calling him Mad Eye, lifted his head to reveal a long splinter of wood protruding out from where his eye should have been. It didn't seem to slow down the old auror in the slightest. In fact it seemed to give him the angry boost he needed to fire off three succinct stunners, knocking down the three Death Eaters closest to him. Peter and Arthur quickly stunned the last two. "Professor!" Harry yelled, glancing back at Dumbledore "take him to Madame Pomfrey." Though he was still standing Alastor was losing a lot of blood and becoming very pale. Albus quickly grabbed Moody and drug him to the fireplace before he could protest, and with a flash of green they were gone.

"We need to leave!" Harry called out "there are more coming!"

"How do you know that?" Lily was remaining very calm, but there was an edge of panic in her voice.

"That one there pressed his Dark Mark" Harry replied, making his way to the fire place. "they can communicate that way"

"Remus, Lily, you two go first!" James ordered. Both looked like they were about to argue but James spoke up before they could.

"Moony!" James barked "you know what will happen if they catch you! Lily... Please" Remus knew he couldn't risk being caught and forced into Greyback's pack, so he grabbed Lily by the shoulder, she hesitated and looked back to James. Suddenly there was another loud crash upstairs as more Death Eaters broke into the house.

"GO!" Harry looked at Lily, pleading her to listen. She was a brilliant witch, but her lack of experience in dueling was obvious.

"My house!" James yelled "go!" And they were gone

Before anyone else could follow, there was the sound of feet thundering down the stairs. All seven young men turned to face the door, wands drawn. Three more Death Eaters entered followed by a fourth that Harry would know anywhere, even under his mask Harry recognized him immediately.

"Dolohov" Harry snarled through gritted teeth. James and Sirius both moved to stand in front of the twins, if Dolohov was here, there was still a chance the twins wouldn't come out alive.

The Death Eater quickly turned, obviously surprised to be recognized under his mask, especially by someone that he didn't recognize himself. The mouth visible below the mask twisted into an evil smirk.

"Have we met?" The gruff voice sounded almost pleasant and James thanked God that Dumbledore had glamoured Harry's face. Dolohov was known to hold grudges, and if he had seen Harry's real face, he wouldn't stop hunting Harry until one of them was dead. However, judging by the look on Harry's face, that might just be tonight.

"Get to floo! Now!" Harry yelled at the rest of them but no one moved.

"There's no one to cover you if we leave." James argued

"And right now we outnumber them." Arthur said confidently.

Antonin looked around at his comrades laying motionless on the floor with disgust.

"We won't be as easy" he said as he raised his wand, pointing it at Harry. "How do you know who am?" He asked, his slimy voice dripping with unspoken threats.

"You killed Ginny." Harry growled. Sirius looked over in time to see Harry's eyes flash a bright Amber before turning back to the brown Dumbledore had given him.

"Ginny? You'll have to be more specific boy, I've killed many little blood traitors and mudblood whores." Dolohov causally drawled out, he was obviously stalling. Which meant more were coming.

Harry sent a curse flying, Dolohov ducked but not before it swiped his cheek, drawing a thick line of blood across the side of his face. Then curses were flying everywhere. Fabian sent a stunner at the one on the left, who ducked and walked right into a stunner sent by Sirius.

Arthur was dueling the one on the far right, ducking behind chairs to avoid the curses sent his way. With the Gideon by his side they quickly overpowered the large Death Eater and took his wand, leaving him slumped over a chair.

Suddenly James cried out in pain, Harry looked to his left to see James fall backwards holding his shoulder, blood quickly spilling out. Then he heard Sirius scream "Reducto!" and the Death Eater went flying across the room and crumpled onto the floor.

Satisfied that the others had it under control, Harry turned his full attention back to Dolohov. The two were evenly matched, much to Dolohov's surprise.

While taking care of James though, Sirius didn't see the other Death Eater stun Peter, then turn his wand onto Sirius. A green light shot out of his wand. From his spot on the floor, James kicked Sirius's legs out from underneath him causing Sirius to fall and avoid the killing curse. Then James sent a curse that knocked the third Death Eater out cold.

Dolohov was clearly angry, he came after Harry with full force, sending curse after curse. Harry barely had time to deflect one before another was sent. The others tried to help but Harry yelled "NO! He's mine." Harry's teeth were bared and his eyes glowed a deep amber, giving the others a glimpse of just how much wolf really was in Harry. They slowly backed away but none of them lowered their wands.

"You think you stand a chance against me you filthy half breed!" Dolohov yelled, he had also noticed Harry's eyes. Arthur and the Prewetts backed away a bit more, unsure of what was happening.

Neither man relented, they seemed to be equally matched. Then suddenly Dolohov raised his wand and shouted "Avada Ke.." At the same time, Harry slashed his wand, yelling "sectumsempra!"

A deep gash appeared across Dolohov's chest. He cried out as he fell to the floor thrashing around before, with a disturbing gurgling noise, he stopped. Harry slowly lowered his wand, as did the others. They were shocked at the gory sight but Harry didn't flinch, instead he turned towards the others and said "we need to leave."

Another crash was heard upstairs and the seven men quickly ran for the floo. Stuffing in as many as they could fit at a time, Arthur and Peter grabbed James and Sirius, throwing the powder and saying "The Burrow!"

As footsteps were heard descending the stairs, Gideon, Fabian, and Harry piled in and Fabian whispered "The Burrow." So the new arrivals wouldn't hear their location. Then they spun out of sight into a whirlwind of green flames, catching glimpses of living rooms until they were spit out in warm and quirky room Harry immediately recognized.

"Oh for Heaven's sake!" Molly Weasley gushed as she ran forward to the three new arrivals in her living room. "What happened? Are you alright?" She patted down all three checking for injuries then enveloped both of her brothers in a tight hug. Harry had to stop himself from pulling her into a hug as well. He had dearly missed the only mother figure he'd ever had.

"We are fine Molly" Gideon reassured her.

"But James needs help." Fabian gave Molly a gentle push in James direction.

"Yes of course!" Using her wand, she stopped the blood flow and the wound began to seal itself with a fresh layer of new skin.

"Come into the kitchen dear." She instructed James.

As everyone was making their way into the next room, Harry vanished all the blood from the floor where James had been standing. Then followed the rest of the group.

"Here, sit down." Molly pulled out a chair for James. "You'll need to drink a couple of potions." She said and turned to walk towards the cabinet where she kept them on the other side of the room. Harry was standing in front of it though, and because he knew where they were kept, he turned around and opened the cabinet. Grabbing the two potions he knew she would want from the top shelf, he passed the bottles to Peter. Peter handed them over to Fabian and the bottles quickly passed from hand to hand over to Molly across the table.

"Thank you!" She said, then realizing a stranger knew his way around her kitchen, she stopped and looked up at Harry suspiciously. "How did you know...?" She started but Arthur interrupted her her "We will explain in a minute Molly." He assured her and although she felt uneasy, she went to tend to James.

"I need to send a message to Dumbledore" Harry said "I'll send one to Lily and Remus as well." Harry waved his wand, conjuring two stags who bounded through the walls in opposite directions.

"Bleh!" James sputtered after throwing back the second potion. "What is this?"

"You've lost a lot of blood! You need to drink the rest of that!" She directed, pointing to the bit that he had spit back into the vial. James pulled a face at the nasty back washed potion but, knowing that she was right, swallowed the rest.

"You just saved my life." Gideon said earnestly to Harry. Then he pulled out a chair for Harry and himself and they each sat down. Harry didn't want to draw attention to the fact that both twins were supposed to die tonight. So he just smiled a small smile at Gideon and then sat down.

"You did?" Molly asked, a little of her unease towards Harry dissipating.

"It's true." Arthur confirmed "you may want to sit down for this though." He warned her. She looked around the room suspiciously, she did not like not knowing what was going on.

"Wait a minute, if we are going to tell you who he is, you might as well know what he really looks like." Gideon added.

"Oh right!" Harry drew his wand, he had forgotten about the glamours.

"Finite Incantatem." He said and felt the glamours melt away, except the one hiding his green eyes. Molly was a little taken aback by the scars on his forehead and neck, but she didn't stare.

Harry warned her that this secret was kept under the Fidelius charm. When she agreed that she still wanted to know, he told her that he was the descendant of Fleamont Potter and that he had accidentally traveled back in time. He also explained that he and Dumbledore had a plan to finish Voldemort. Most of the people in the room flinched at the name.

"Dumbledore and I will go over the plan at the next meeting, we would have tonight but obviously that didn't happen." Harry finished, and leaned back into his chair. He ran a hand through his hair messing it up.

Molly seemed overwhelmed by all this information, but she didn't have time to dwell on it because a baby started crying.

"I'll get him." Arthur said as he hopped up. Then another baby began to wail as well "get that one too!" He smiled.

"Thank you Arthur!" Molly said. "Oh you all must be hungry!" She rose from her seat and started bustling around the kitchen. "Dinner is almost ready! You will stay won't you?"

Arthur walked back into the kitchen, with a baby in each arm. "Oh yes!" He agreed "there's plenty for all of us!"

"I am getting hungry." James shrugged, looking to the other three.

Harry and Peter quickly agreed, it'd been years since Harry had dinner at the burrow and he wasn't quite ready to leave.

"Sure!" Sirius agreed as well. "Would you like some help?"

"No I believe I've got it, thank you dear!" She assured as she hustled Sirius back into his seat.

"Let us see our nephews!" Gideon held out his arms and each twin took a baby, Arthur summoned two bottles and handed them over.

Harry just smiled at the two future trouble makers.

"Mum!" A small red headed boy called from the bottom of the stairs "I'm hungry!"

"It's almost ready, go bring Charlie and Percy down please." Molly called over her shoulder and the boy turned and ran upstairs.

"Make sure they wash up!" She yelled after him.

Harry couldn't stop smiling as he took in the noises and smells of the Burrow. It was very similar to how he remembered it, very warm and inviting.

Arthur noticed the nostalgic smile on Harry's face. "Did you spend a lot of time here?" Arthur asked. "When you were younger I mean."

"I did." Harry smiled "this was the first wizarding home I'd ever seen." He started laughing as he thought back. "In fact! The first time I was here I stood right there" he pointed to a spot near the back door. "And we all got yelled at then had to de-gnome the garden!"

Everyone in the room chuckled at the story.

"And what did you do to encourage the wrath of our sister?" Fabian laughed.

"Well it wasn't me actually, it was those two you're holding!"

"No! Not these two! They are uncle's perfect angels!" Gideon crooned to the baby in his arms causing chubby fists to wave and a big toothless grin.

"Ha! Just you wait!" Harry warned.

"What did they do?" Molly asked, as strange as it was to hear stories about her two smallest children, she was curious.

"Well, Mr. Weasley you had an illegal enchanted muggle car and those two and another one of your sons, flew it to Surrey in the middle of the night to pick me up!" Mrs. Weasley already looked furious, Arthur was impressed, and the rest of the room erupted in laughter!

"You lot flew an enchanted car?" Gideon laughed loudly.

"That's nothing!" Harry said "he and I missed the train that year, so we decided it would be a good idea to fly it to Hogwarts! That got us a bright red howler!" Harry laughed even more, as did everyone else. Except Molly of course.

"Oh Merlin!" James laughed "that's brilliant!"

"It was!" Harry exclaimed "Until we crashed into the whomping willow!"

"Which one of our boys was this?" Molly shrieked, wide eyed. Her boys were all so well behaved, she couldn't picture any of them doing such a thing!

"Your next son, he was the youngest boy." Harry replied, a small smile still on his face.

"The next one?" Arthur asked happily "goodness Molly! We have a full house!"

"Seven actually." Harry smiled.

"The next one is the youngest boy of seven children? Does that mean we have a girl?" Molly asked hopefully.

Harry suddenly felt like he'd had the wind knocked out of him. He desperately missed Ginny.

He had been enjoying his time back at the Burrow, but now all he could see, was her. He saw her standing at the sink, sticking her elbow in the butter dish, curled up on the couch, or sneaking out to the broom shed. He heard her laughter, heard her yelling at her brothers, signing to herself as she helped her mother cook. Suddenły he couldn't breathe, he felt like the walls were closing in. He could hear her screaming his name. He saw her dueling Dolohov, saw the green light hit her chest and her body fall to the ground, limp. Her lifeless eyes staring up accusingly at him. It was too much, he needed to get out of there.

"I need some air." Harry said as he fled to the back yard, he ran to the pond and sat on the bank. He tried not to think about the summer days they all spent in the water.

Why did he bring up their future children? Harry thought to himself. Of course they would want to know more. How could he tell them all but one of their children had died? That Charlie was the only Weasley alive in Harry's time. That he wasn't able to keep them safe. That he had given their daughter his mothers ring, only to take it off of her dead finger. He took out his pouch from under his shirt.

"Accio Ginny's ring." He called and the ring floated out and into his hand. He curled his fingers around it, just holding it, as the tears began to fall.

Back in the house, the others were shocked by Harry's sudden exit.

"What...?" Molly wasn't sure what she had said to upset him so.

"I'll check on him." Sirius said, he knew that James knew more about Ron and Ginny. So he left James to fill in the blanks. As Sirius walked out the door, James stood up to look out the kitchen window. He could see Harry sitting by the pond.

"You do have a daughter." James explained.

Molly wanted to be excited by this, but judging by James expression this story didn't have a happy ending.

"Harry and her were in love." James turned away from the window, back toward the group. "The future he came from was miserable. Not many of us survive, none of us in this room actually." Molly came over to stand behind Arthur's chair. She placed her hand on his shoulder and he reached up and grabbed it.

"She didn't survive either." James couldn't meet their eyes as he admitted this.

"But we are going to change that!" He said confidently. "We already saved these two" he gestured to Molly's brothers. "We can save you all too."

"We will." Arthur replied. There was a finality to his voice that said he believed they would all be ok. That seemed to calm Molly because she looked down at Arthur and nodded. The same confident finality in her eyes.

Yes, this future would be different.

 ** _A/N- sorry for the wait! Been very busy at work this week! Which means I make money but don't have time to work on my story!_**

 ** _I'm not entirely happy with this chapter but I couldn't figure out why I didn't like it so I decided to post it._**

 ** _Before anyone gets pissy because I said Lily was bad at dueling, you should know I wrote that for a reason and will use it for a little bit of Harry and Lily fluff._**

 ** _Next chapter will include the full moon and more about Harry's wolf tendencies._**


	12. Chapter 12 The Full Moon

Chapter 12 The Full Moon

Sirius scanned the yard and saw Harry sitting next to the water. As he got closer, Sirius noticed Harry was looking at something he held in his hand. Then Sirius realized how little he actually knew about Harry. His first reaction had been to follow Harry to make sure he was ok. Now that he was out here though, he was unsure of what to do. Harry was facing away from him and for a moment, Sirius thought about turning around and going back to the house.

"You can sit down if you'd like." Harry offered without turning around.

Sirius wandered over and took a seat. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you." He said as he sat.

Harry smiled and laughed humorlessly. "I've been hiding from snatchers, Death Eaters, and Voldemort himself for the past five years Sirius, you couldn't sneak up on me if you wanted to."

"I bet I could!" He argued.

"Subtlety is not your strong suit Padfoot." Harry pointed out.

Sirius wanted to argue but Harry had a point and he had to laugh. So the two sat in silence for a while until Sirius spoke up. "Want to talk about what happened back there?"

Harry shrugged, then opened his hand to show Sirius the ring he was holding.

"I had asked her to marry me, but we never got the chance."

"Oh.." Sirius said, Harry looked miserable and Sirius had no idea what to say.

"Shes not dead here and now." Sirius offered "we will end this war before that happens and then..." He trailed off

"Exactly.." Harry said quietly "what happens then? If I'm not able to return to my own time, I'll be too old for her. If some miracle happens and we figure out a way to send me back, what future will I return too? Will the people I loved even know me?"

"We will" Sirius replied, looking out over the pond. "Your parents and I. We will be there with you wether you stay here or go back."

Harry smiled a little and nodded his head. "Thanks Sirius."

Sirius didn't answer but he gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze.

They both stood and made their way back to the house. Molly was serving food onto everyone's plates when they returned. Three small red headed boys were sitting next to there father and uncles. The smallest was sitting in Arthur's lap. Harry walked over to Mrs. Weasley "I'm sorry about that." Harry said quietly.

"It's alright dear." She patted his arm. "Now sit right here" she pulled out a chair for him between Charlie and Peter.

"Hello" Charlie smiled brightly as Harry took his seat next to the child. Harry couldn't help but smile in return. Charlie was short and stocky, with a face covered in freckles just like his siblings.

"Hello Charlie!" Harry responded.

"How do you know my name?" Charlie's demanded, how did this stranger know who he was.

"I know lots of things." Harry winked and little Charlie giggled.

The dinner was wonderful. To Harry, it almost felt like home. He had three plates of 's roast and potatoes, she tired to force a fourth on him but Harry had to politely refuse. It wasn't as loud as when all the Weasleys were gathered around, but the group was by no means quiet. Harry even found time to join the conversation, when he wasn't too busy tucking in to his own plate.

"What happened right there?" Charlie asked innocently as he pointed at the scar across Harry's neck. Everyone got very quiet, afraid the question would upset Harry again.

"Charlie! That's not polite." Mrs Weasley chastised.

"It's alright." Harry reassured. "I got hurt while fighting bad guys." Harry explained.

Charlie and Bills eyes both widened. "Like dad does?" Charlie asked.

"Yes! When bad wizards charm muggle things to do something they shouldn't, Dad puts them into Azkaban!" Bill excitedly explained.

"I don't send people to Azkaban Bill." Arthur had an amused smirk on his face. Bill looked a little disappointed to learn this.

"I'm sorry." Arthur apologized to Harry.

Harry didn't mind at all though.

Soon dinner was over and the four said goodnight to the Weasleys, with many thanks for the wonderful food.

Once they had all returned to the Potter's house, Sirius threw himself over the back of the sofa, landing on the seat in front he dramatically groaned. "Now I see why you were so eager to have dinner there Harry! I couldn't stop eating!"

"That was the best roast I've ever eaten!" Peter agreed as he sat on the floor next to Sirius.

"There you lot are!" Charlus said from the door way before turning his head and calling for the rest of the house over his shoulder. "Are you all okay?" Charlus asked as he entered the room.

"Yes we..." James began but was interupted by the rest of the house entering the room.

"What took you guys so long?" Remus asked as he came in and sat next to Harry on the love-seat.

"We stayed for dinner." Harry groaned as he leaned back, trying to find a comfortable position without putting pressure on his distended mid section. Remus just shook his head at his friends miserable expressions and Charlus chuckled.

"Finally! You're all home! Are you all alright? No one is hurt?" Lily bombarded them with questions as she entered, Dorea bustling in right behind her.

"We are all perfectly fine." James assured both of the women.

"Mrs. Weasley patched us up exquisitely." Sirius drawled from his place on the sofa, eyes closed and his arm laying across his face.

"Patched you up?" Dorea asked, looking each boy over for signs of injuries.

"What do you mean patched up?" Lily asked at the same time.

"It was nothing!" Peter attempted to calm down the women before they became too worried.

"Just bumps and bruises." Harry agreed with Peter.

"Yes, Sirius has a monumental bruise on his arse." James informed the room, earning himself a smack from his father. "Language James!" He chastised.

"No thanks to you!" Sirius jokingly blamed James.

"Oh I'm sorry, next time I'll let you stand there and take the curse." James smoothly responded. Harry just rolled his eyes.

Roughly an hour later Harry ascended the stairs laughing quietly to himself. It had taken Sirius 10 minutes to convince Dorea that he didn't actually have a bruised arse, though Harry was pretty sure he did.

The next morning found Harry making his way down to the kitchen before the sun again. As he entered the kitchen he was surprised to see Lily sitting at the island drinking a steaming cup of tea.

"Good morning." Harry greeted her, he was confused to see her face turn red and she looked down into her cup. Without smiling she returned his greeting. "Good morning."

Harry wasn't sure what else to say so he went and made himself a cup as well. Sitting down he decided to attempt conversation again. "Did you sleep well?" He asked awkwardly.

Lily just shrugged. Harry didn't need her to answer to know that the answer was no. She had bags under her red rimmed eyes. He sat there a while longer before he spoke up again. "I guess you're an early rises as well?" He asked pleasantly.

"Not usually." She responded curtly. He wasn't sure what was going on with her, it didn't take long for him to find out though. After a few more minutes of awkward silence she sat her cup down. "I'm sorry about last night." She admitted in a single breath, as if she'd been holding it this whole time.

This confused Harry even more. "What do you mean?"

"At the meeting... when the Death Eaters showed up. I know I was struggling during the battle.. I don't blame you for kicking me out." Lily looked to be on the verge of tears and Harry felt panic build up on top of his confusion.

Then he remembered that when she hesitated to leave with Remus, that he had yelled at her to go.

"No!" Harry tried to explain. "I didn't kick you out, well I mean I guess I kind of did... but not because I thought you were a liability! There were more Death Eaters coming and well.. I was trying to keep you safe."

Lily eyed him speculatively, what did her safety matter to him? They had never met before.

"You remind me of someone..." Harry said.

"Oh?" Lily responded, the tone of her voice asking for more information.

Instead of replying, Harry opened the pouch around his neck and summoned his favorite photograph. It was taken at Bill and Fluer's wedding. It was of Harry and Ginny dancing, he had looked at this photo many times over the years and he knew it was safe to show lily, he was too far away from the camera for you to clearly see his true eye color. In the moving picture, Harry had a genuine smile on his face as he spun Ginny around the dance floor. Ginny was happily laughing as her fiery red hair flared out behind her, before Harry pulled her in closer and placed his hand around her waist. He held onto it for a moment before passing it over to Lily.

"It's the hair I suppose." Harry said as he handed it over.

Lily smiled at the photo. "She's back in your time?"

"No... She's not. She was killed by Death Eaters." Harry replied thickly.

"I'm sorry..." Lily looked down at the picture again before handing it back "she must have been very brave"

"Incredibly" Harry smiled.

Lily didn't look up as she said "I wish I could be like that."

Harry was confused, he knew exactly how brave Lily was. She had stood, wandlessly, between him and Voldemort and willingly gave her life to save his! How could she think she was anything less?

"Bravery isn't a lack of fear, that's just ignorance. Bravery is fighting despite your fear." Harry responded. Lily looked up from her tea into Harry's face, judging his sincerity.

"And you never stopped fighting last night." Harry finished. Lily looked a little relieved.

"I suppose you're right." She smiled.

"I could help you practice dueling if you'd like?" Harry offered.

"Would you? That would be wonderful!" Lily jumped at the opportunity to practice her weaker skills.

"There is something I need in return though..." Harry smirked, he knew Lily would be delighted to help him with this task regardless of any dueling lessons.

"What do you need?" Lily asked suspiciously, Harry's smirk looked too similar to James for her to be trusting.

"Help with a potion... It hasn't been invented yet but I have the instructions.." Harry explained as he summoned the old worn parchment from his pouch. Lily looked incredibly curious with the pouch as well as the idea of this potion.

"It's called Wolfsbane, it helps with..." Harry realized that he wasn't sure when Lily leaned of Remus's condition. "Helps people infected with Lycanthropy during the full moon. I was attacked you see..." Harry decided to tell her it was for him instead of Remus, just in case. He told her about his attack and tried to explain his unique condition.

"So.. This potion." Lily began "how does it help?"

"It allows me to keep control of my mind during the full moon."

It was a lie of course, Harry didn't lose control like Remus did. He became rather quick tempered, a bit territorial, and his instincts became more animalistic, but he retained the ability to control these tendencies.

"So.. uh... Exactly how many doses does this make?" Lily asked.

"Enough for one dose every evening of the week leading up to the full moon." Harry replied as he sipped his tea.

"That's all?" Lily asked, she seemed disappointed. "Just enough for one person?"

"Yes...?" Harry responded suspiciously. He had the feeling they had reached a stale mate. "Do we need more?"

"It could be helpful.." She replied vaguely.

"You know don't you?" Harry bluntly asked.

"What do you know?" She countered.

"I know quite a bit.. I'm from the future remember?" He smirked again and Lily smiled a little.

"He been my friend for the past seven years." Lily replied as she lifted her cup to her lips "and he's a horrible liar."

They both chuckled a little at that. "He can be when he needs to be." Harry attempted to defend Remus.

Lily just shrugged. "Subtlety is not their strong suit. I mean really! Moony? Talking about his 'Furry Little Problem'? I don't know how more people didn't know." Lily just shook her head and Harry smiled. "I figured it out in third year, I've never told them I know." She said.

Harry wondered if she knew about them being animagi, but he didn't ask. That wasn't his secret to tell.

They discussed the potion a bit, and Harry informed her of everything he knew.

It wasn't long before the others woke and, soon they were all seated around the table enjoying breakfast.

"Lily, when do you start work at the store?" Dorea asked politely.

"I start next Monday!" She happily replied "maybe after things settle down, I'll look for a position in the ministry, but with my blood status, I think it'd be safer to lay low for awhile."

Dorea gave Lily a simple smile, "Well, when that happens I'm sure Charlus would love to write you a letter of recommendation!"

"Absolutely!" Charlus agreed "you're very bright, I have no doubt you will do great things wherever you end up."

Lily smile and thanked them both profusely. Then Charlus turned his attention to the boys. "Peter, you're starting a job in the ministry aren't you?"

"Yes sir, I'll be working in the Magical Transportation Department." Peter replied

"What about you Remus?" Charlus asked.

"Dumbledore has asked me to help the Order, that will keep me too busy to hold down a job. He said he would compensate me though." Remus blushed a bit. Dorea looked like she wanted to argue. Everyone knew what Dumbledore was asking of the young werewolf, and none of them liked it.

"Harry, you'll be helping the Order too, correct?" Charlus asked.

"Yes, Remus and I will be working together quite a bit, I assume."

"Well, at least you two will be together." Dorea said, though she still didn't look happy.

"Auror training starts August first." Sirius mentioned before Charlus could ask.

"Assuming Moody has recovered by then." James added

"Oh he will be. I'm sure he's fighting his way out of the hospital bed as we speak." Harry laughed.

Harry and Lily spent the day in the basement brewing the potion for Remus and working on a few defensive spells. Lily was a fast learner.

"You're an excellent teacher." She remarked as she sat down next to him after their duel.

"I learned from the best." Harry smiled. "Remus was the Defense professor in my third year. Whenever I am teaching, I try to think about how he would have explained it."

"You've taught before?" She asked.

"Well, sort of." Harry replied as he stood and took her hand, pulling her to her feet. It was time to tend to the potion again and, while she took care of that, Harry told her the story of the DA in his fifth year.

Lily just laughed. "An illegal defense club! You are most definitely related to James Potter. That's something the Mauraders would have done."

Lily wanted to ask more about the future but, she wasn't sure if she should. She decided that she would wait and let Harry tell her what he wanted to.

After dinner that night, Lily and Harry found the four Mauraders in the sitting room. Sirius and Peter were laying on the floor playing wizards chess, while Remus and James had their noses buried in their books, lounging on the sofa.

James smiled as he saw the two of them enter the room, then he noticed their nervous expressions and the potion in Harry's hand.

"What's this?" He asked,drawing the attention of everyone else in the room.

Harry looked towards Remus. "I guess I should have talked to you about this before now, but uhm... This is called wolfsbane. It won't be invented for a few more years, but it helps during your transformations Remus."

Remus paled dramatically, then turned bright red as he looked at Lily then back to Harry. He looked like he was about to be angry with Harry.

"Remus he didn't tell me, he asked me for help brewing it but told me it was for himself." Lily stepped up.

The four young men looked at one another before Remus spoke up.

"You know?" He questioned fearfully.

"Well of course I know!" Lily sounded a bit exasperated. "You can't use the 'sick mum' excuse every full moon and not draw suspicion."

"How long have you known?" It was Sirius who spoke up this time. He and Peter had stood and moved to stand behind Remus in the middle of the room next to James.

"I figured it out before Christmas in third year." She replied.

Remus looked extremely confused. "And you were still my friend all these years?"

Lily moved closer and wrapped her arms around him. "Of course I'm your friend Remus."

Remus hugged her back. "Did you tell her the rest of the secret." He asked Harry as they pulled apart.

"What do you mean the rest?" She demanded, looking accusingly at Harry.

"No, I didn't say anything." Harry replied "before we do though.." Harry held the steaming cup up, but instead of taking it, Remus eye it speculatively.

"It's not a cure of course, and it does nothing for the pain. But you will be able to keep control of your mind after the transformation." Harry explained.

"But the full moon isn't for another seven days." Remus questioned.

"You will need to drink one cup every night of the week leading up to the full moon."

After a moment Remus decided it was worth a shot and he took the cup from Harry's hand and sniffed.

"I should warn you, I never tried it, but you always said it tasted like piss." Harry cautioned as Remus held the cup up to his face.

"Bottoms up." He said as he downed the potion in one go.

He gagged and tried very hard to keep the drink down. James handed him a glass of water to wash it down.

"This had better be worth it." He said as he pulled a face at the bitter after taste lingering in his mouth.

Seven days later, the five men were sitting in a small, secluded country cottage owned by Potters. Lily had been shocked, and if she was honest extremely impressed, to learn that they were all animagi. Harry had been surprised when they asked him to join them that night. He had always felt close to his father when he and bill would run with Moony, but now he would be spending a full moon with all four Mauraders.

They were seated in the front room waiting for the moon to rise.

"How much longer?" James asked.

"Twenty three minutes" Remus and Harry replied at the same time.

They sat there a while longer, Remus struggling to find a comfortable position. His joints were aching and he was sore all over.

Sensing that he needed a distraction from the pain Peter spoke up. "Hey! Do you all remember the time McGonagall smacked Sirius?"

"Oh can't we just forget this particular story?" Sirius groaned, but James, Peter, and even Remus were laughing.

"It was fifth year, and we were sticking dungbombs under the Slytherin table in the Great Hall!" James began.

"I was on the other side of the door keeping watch" Peter said through his laughter. "Sirius was the fist one to attach all his, so he came out to stand watch with me, just in time to see Professor McGonagall round the corner! She knew we were up to something, so I tried to keep her busy by asking about our lesson that morning."

"Only problem was he couldn't think of any questions to ask because he hadn't paid attention in class!" Sirius interjected "If you had just caused an adequate distraction I wouldn't have had to pick up your slack!"

Peter just laughed even harder. "You could have tried something other than hitting on her!" He shrieked. Sirius turned red and the other four laughed even harder.

"I can't believe you hit on a teacher." Remus shook his head at his friend.

"You dealt with a lot of that while you were a professor." Harry smirked at Remus, whose eyebrows shot up.

"Say what?" Remus replied, a bit shocked.

"Most of girls, and some boys, were very infatuated with you the year you taught." Harry informed him, he couldn't keep the smirk off his face and Remus blushed.

"I can just picture sexy professor Moony." James laughed and Remus just glared at him.

"So what was Professor Lupin like?" Sirius laughed, glad the attention was on someone else.

"Well" Harry began "the first day of class, he showed up late and conjured an image of Snape dressed in lady's robes."

Remus's jaw dropped and the other three were laughing so hard they couldn't catch their breath.

"I did what?" Remus shrieked, all his pain seemed to be forgotten for now.

"You were late to class." Harry explained "the lesson was over boggarts. Neville was up first and you asked him what he was most afraid of, which was Proffessor Snape."

"Hold on! Snivelus was a Proffessor?" Sirius yelled in disbelief.

"Unfortunately yes... He was potions master, the greasy dungeon bat." Harry replied. "Anyway, you can tell how awful of a teacher he was if he was terrible enough to be Neville's boggart. So you told Neville to picture his Grandmothers clothes, and when the boggart Snape stepped out of the cabinet, Neville yelled 'Ridiklious' and there was Snape wearing bright green lady's robes with a red handbag and a stuffed vulture on his hat!" They all laughed at that and then they went silent before Remus asked.

"What was your boggart Harry?"

"I don't know, you jumped in front of me before it could change. You thought it would be Voldemort, I think it would have been a dementor. The last time I faced one, it was.. Well it wasn't either of those." The expression on his face said he didn't want to talk about it so they dropped the topic.

A few minutes later Harry stood from his spot, perched on the window sill, and said it was time. The four of them morphed into their individual animagus forms.

A moment later, Remus cried out in pain as his body twisted and morphed, his bones reforming into that of the wolf. When suddenly, as quickly as it began, it was over and where Remus had been laying a giant sandy brown wolf took his place.

Padfoot was closest to the bed, and Wormtail crawled up his back and sat on top of his head to get a better look at his surroundings. Remus leaned over and sniffed them both causing Sirius's tail to beat a happy rhythm on the floor. He could already tell the difference the potion made.

Then Moony caught a whiff of Harry's unfamiliar scent and growled. Harry could tell Remus instantly realized what he had done because he sat up and turned to face Harry and let out a small whine. Harry understood immediately, while the potion allows Remus to keep his mind, he still has to make the conscious effort to avoid those animalistic instincts and right now their is a large unfamiliar grey wolf in his pack. Harry felt the same pull, he was joining this pack and he needed to know how he fit in here, what his place was.

Harry knew they had two options, they could listen to the rational, human side of their brains and ignore the hippagriff in the room, or they could give into their instincts and establish dominance. Harry also knew that Remus had spent his whole life fighting his other instincts and that at this stage in his life, he would never give in. So Harry decided to make the decision for him. He looked Remus in the eyes then nodded his head towards the door.

Remus was confused, was Harry saying "let's go outside." or "let's take this outside." But when Harry refused to turn his back on him to walk out the door, Remus knew, and before he knew it, they were walking side by side out the large French doors into the back yard.

Harry lowered his head and growled, Remus did the same and they begin to circle each other. Padfoot tried to step in but Moony snapped at him, forcing him to back off. He turned his attention back to Harry, and lunged. Growling and snarling fiercely the two wolves fought. Sirius relaxed when he noticed that they were not seriously hurting one another, and he understood what they were doing. Prongs tried to step in at one point when Harry kicked Remus off of him, launching the larger wolf several meters back. But Sirius stopped him and when James looked up again, moony was back on his feet charging the smaller grey wolf.

It wasn't long before Moony had Harry pinned down, his teeth holding Harry's neck securely. Harry knew he had lost, and he rolled over in submission. Remus released his hold on Harry, but didn't immediately let him up. Harry looked up at Remus as the realization of what he had done settled in, and Harry could tell that Remus was disgusted with himself. Harry knew Remus associated all his wolffish instincts with the monster inside of him, and he had just willingly given into them. Harry knew better, he knew this didn't make either of them monsters, but he couldn't exactly explain all this to Remus right now. So instead, Harry nipped Remus's ear hard enough to elicit a high pitched yelp, and used his surprise to wiggle free. He happily ran circles around Moony, attempting to get him to join. Sirius decided to join the fun and proudly pounced on Harry, knocking him over and starting his own little fight. Remus huffed and they both stopped to look at him.

They were quite the sight, Padfoot was on top, tugging on Harry's ear, while Harry was gnawing on Sirius's paw. Remus just shook his head. The other two canines pulled themselves together sat up. Harry looked up at the moon and released a long loud howl, Moony couldn't help himself and he joined in as well. Soon Padfoot took off into the woods and disappeared, Prongs following behind. Moony turned and headed their direction as well. Harry leaned his head down in front of Wormtail, allowing him to climb up and settle into the fur on Harry's neck before he took off, running into the woods after the others.

A/N- I know it's been awhile since my last update. Life has been very busy for me lately. Work has been busy the last two weeks, which is good for me but slow days are when I get most of my writing done. I just want to let you guys know that I won't abandon the story and will update as often as I possibly can. Thank you for your wonderful feedback!

 **I do have to ask a question though, Willow Lark, you questioned my use of the term "fluff" in the AN of my last chapter. I was under the impression "fluff" referred to bits of the story that were not exactly important to the storyline, but served as a sort of filler. (In my head I picture the way "fluffy" cotton "fills" a pillow, does that make sense?) Not necessarily romantic, just adding small details. Am I wrong? I'm very new to the world of fan fic so I need all the help I can get! ;) if fluff does refer to romantic details, then NO most definitely not any Harry Lily fluff! That's a bit disturbing to me**!


	13. Chapter 13 The Recruitment

_**Haven't thrown in a disclaimer in a while, mostly because I feel like I shouldn't have to. You're on a fan fiction website... I'm a fan of Harry Potter... and this is my fiction! But for arguments sake.**_

 _ **I'm not JKR and I don't own these characters or stories. I just play with them!**_

Chapter 13 The Recruitment

The following week was a busy one. The Order meeting had been rescheduled and Dumbledore was finally able to reveal all that he had learned from Harry. As much as The Order needed to know that is, Harry's real identity was kept secret per James's request. Everyone was horrified at the though of one horcrux, let alone five! They discussed where the remaining four could be hiding, and Harry told them of the attacks he was aware of, such as the McKinnon and Bones families, and cautioned everyone to hide using the Fidelius Charm. He also suggested safety measures such as having code words to discretely signal trouble, and passwords or secret questions to confirm a person's identity before discussing any Order secrets or allowing anyone into your home.

Some thought Harry was overreacting, others wondered why they weren't already doing such things, Mad Eye was just impressed, but they all agreed to implement the new safety procedures.

James couldn't help but feel a sad sense of pride at seeing Harry up in front leading all these people into war. He was quiet the sight to behold, his thick black hair was now long enough to tie back at the nape of his neck, the sleeves of his black robes were pushed up to reveal his scared fore arms. The word BLOODTRAITR, almost proudly, displayed as he spoke and reviewed plans with the entire Order. That was another thing James was proud of, unlike Dumbledore, Harry included everyone in their plans and he had to admit that did instill a strong sense of hope and unity among the group. Harry knew how to lead.

As the week progressed, Lily and Peter started their jobs. Lily's parents had already been killed in a Death Eater raid at the beginning of Feburary, causing her broken relationship with her sister to sever completely. Lily had been staying with friends and the Potters since school ended. Peter moved in with Sirius in his flat in London, while Remus stayed at the Potters. He would be leaving for France soon anyway, Dumbledore had a connection there that would put Remus in touch with a few neutral packs, hopefully Remus could sway them to join their side. Harry was considering finding his own place, but for now he was content to live with his family.

Before long, it was Saturday, the Day of Mrs. Notts Summer Soirée.

Merlin that sounds pompous! Harry thought to himself as he struggled with the bow tie on his dress robes. As he was attempting to tie it, James entered the room, knocking on the door frame. "Are you ready?" He asked.

"Almost." Harry responded, fingers fumbling around the fabric at his neck.

"Merlin's balls Harry, who taught you how to tie a tie?" James exclaimed, forgetting that Harry grew up orphaned with less than caring muggles. James immediately regretted the words as he spoke them. Harry just looked pointedly at James.

"Right, sorry." James muttered as he entered the room and stood in front of Harry.

"Hold still. There! Much better." He said as he gave the bow one final adjustment.

"Ready?" James asked again.

"As I'll ever be." Harry responded.

"That's the spirit!" James threw his arm around Harry and the two made their way downstairs where Charlus and Dorea were waiting.

The party was held in one of the many beautiful rooms inside the giant manor. The room was predominately grey, with accents of gold. Sparkling chandeliers hung above and shinning gold fixtures adorned the walls supporting small glowing orbs of light. People were milling about in every direction as elves carried trays of food on their heads.

Mr and Mrs Nott were standing at the entrance greeting everyone as they entered, after a polite hello and an official introduction to Mr. Nott they made their way into the ball room. Dorea spotted a friend of hers across the room and left to go speak with her.

"Charlus!" A voice called out to Harry's right. A skinny man with black hair, speckled throughout with grey, and a goatee to match walked up to greet them.

"Arnie! How are you?" Charlus greeted warmly. After a moment of conversation between the two older men, Charlus turned to put his arm around Harry's shoulders.

"Harold, this is Arnie Fincher, he was a good friend of your fathers in school."

"Very nice to meet you ." Harry bowed.

"Arnie this is Fleamont's son Harold Potter." Charlus introduced.

"My stars!" Arnie exclaimed, grasping Harry's hand. "Fleamont's son! I wasn't aware that you even existed my boy! But your father was a bit of an odd duck, God rest his soul. Never heard another word from him after he moved away and married your mum!"

"Yes sir, they were both rather private." Harry replied.

"Wonderful Quidditch player he was! Would have won Slytherin the cup our last year if it wasn't for that rouge bludger!" He sent an accusatory glare in Charlus's direction. Charlus smirked and shrugged his shoulder. "I don't know what you're talking about Arnie."

"Of course you don't, you dirty cheat!" Arnie laughed heartily and Charlus smiled as well.

"Say Harold, you must have inherited quite a bit from your Father's estate?" Arnie questioned rather loudly.

"That's correct, I sold all of it and moved back here a couple weeks ago." Harry noticed a few of the people around him were eavesdropping.

"You must have aquired a large sum of gold after that! Your father was worth quite a lot." Mr. Fincher obnoxiously stated.

Harry's was unsure how to respond to such a comment and merely nodded his head in acknowledgement. He was uncomfortable that everyone around him was now under the impression that Harry was filthy rich. Technically he was filthy rich, having entirely cleaned out the Potter and Black vaults at Gringotts, but he didn't want everyone to know.

Suddenly, another man with a young woman walked up to Harry, introducing himself and his daughter. Charlus looked exasperated by this, but James just smirked. Harry was confused by their reactions until the man excused himself for a moment, leaving his daughter with Harry.

"Would you like to dance?" Harry suggested, after a few awkward seconds. Thanking his lucky stars that Dorea had offered a quick dancing lesson this morning, insisting that as a pure blood, this was something Harry would be expected to know. While neither Fleamont or Euphemia would've considered themselves blood purists, they were still pure blooded Slytherins from old families and would have raised their son to have the manners of an aristocrat.

The girl happily agreed to a dance and as Harry led her onto the floor, he discretely sent a rude hand gesture to a smirking James.

This happened several more times over the next hour. It seemed everyone with eligible daughters was eager to meet the rich new bachelor. Harry was forced to make a hasty retreat when a man introduced Harry to his fourteen year old daughter. The poor girl obviously did not want to be there, or dance with Harry. So before the father could make an excuse to leave, Harry made his. Excusing himself to a table in the corner occupied only by men. Harry scanned the faces searching for James or Charlus but didn't see either of them. He noticed Arnie though, and Harry made his way over to the man.

"Harold! You've been dancing the night away!" Arnie laughed and handed Harry a freshly poured tumbler of firewhiskey.

"No thanks to you!" Harry smirked as he accepted the glass. "Now that they know I'm rich they're on me like vultures!" He whispered the last part to avoid offending anyone who might over hear.

Arnie just laughed at Harry. "You're too polite, son!"

"Indeed." A voice drawled from behind Harry. He turned around to find two men standing there, one with white blonde hair and an obvious sneer, and the other with wavy black hair and sharp aristocratic features.

"Abraxas! Orion! Allow me to introduce you to the son of an old housemate of ours!" Arnie said as he put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "You remember Fleamont? This is his son Harold Potter!"

"Ah yes, the long lost Potter." Abraxas voice seemed to creep across the space between them as he extended his hand towards Harry. "It's nice to meet you at last."

"I'm pleased to meet you as well, sir." He responded respectfully, while strengthening his occlumency shields.

"This is Abraxas Malfoy and Orion Black." Arnie introduced as the two shook hands, though Harry already knew who they were. Harry shook Orion's hand and greeted him but the other said nothing.

"Well Potter, it seems you could have you pick among the young ladies present. Should we expect any engagements soon?" Abraxas asked, tipping his head back to look down his nose at Harry.

Engagements? Good Lord, these people didn't mess around did they? Harry thought to himself. Though the question caught him off guard, he kept his face composed.

"I don't believe so." He smiled "I would need to become more acquainted with the woman and her family before making any proposal."

This seemed to pleasantly surprise the two men in front of him. Obviously misunderstanding Harry's reasons for requiring more information before a proposal, Orion spoke up. "Yes, unfortunately these days one must thoroughly check a young lady's bloodline before any sort of arrangements are made." He said disdainfully.

"Such Filth!" Came a voice from behind Orion, Harry didn't need to see the face to recognize the bigoted screech of Walburga Black. Harry was very shocked to see how short she was in person, next to the taller than average frame of Sirius's father she looked rather harmless, but Harry knew better. Looking over Orion's shoulder at Walburga, Harry also noticed several other groups of people he recognized. All Death Eaters. Harry skin began to prickle and he discretely brushed his hand over his chest, feeling for the wand tucked away in the pocket.

"My wife, Walburga." Orion introduced, placing a hand on the mouthy little witch's back. She haughtily offered her hand and Harry took it, placing a brief kiss on her knuckles.

" , very pleased to meet you." He said as he forced himself not to release her hand too quickly.

She smiled and Harry tried very hard not to grimace.

"How refreshing, a young man with manners, and a sense of loyalty to the purity of his family name. Even if that name is Potter." She practically sneered, not even attempting to hide her dislike.

With great effort on his part, Harry bit his tongue. Choosing to accept the 'compliment' she began with, he simply offered a polite "thank you ma'am" and a tight smile.

Clearly this had been the correct answer, because now they were all smiling at him.

"We need more young men willing to stand by our traditions." Orion stated as he looked Harry directly in the eyes, grey meeting grey.

Abraxas placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, his sneer replaced with a smile, though Harry couldn't distinguish much of a difference between the two expressions. "What we need, is young men willing to fight for our traditions." He raised an eyebrow questioningly at Harry.

Shite! Shite! Shite! Are they asking me to become a Death Eater? Can I say no? Harry thought to himself. He was surrounded by them. Surely they wouldn't kill him here at the party, would they? This wasn't part of the plan. Could he do this? Snape did it! Granted, Voldemort killed him when he found out, but it took him years to figure out Snape's loyalties. Harry didn't have time to think it over, they were all staring at him expectantly.

Channeling his inner Draco Malfoy, Harry put on his best sneer. Inclining his head towards Abraxas he replied "indeed we do."

"What the bloody hell is he doing?" Charlus hissed in James's ear. They were watching the scene play out in front of them. Harry had been forced to dance with half the girls in the room, when suddenly he was no longer on the dance floor. When James finally saw him, Harry was in the corner conversing with Malfoy Sr. and Sirius's parents of all people!

They saw the sneers slowly replaced by sinister smiles before Abraxas slapped Harry on the back and began to lead him around the room, introducing him to the other blood purity extremists. James turned away from the scene across the room to look at his father.

"Being recruited." James replied.

"Are you insane?" Charlus screamed at Harry late that night once they were all back home in the Potter's sitting room.

Harry, who was seated next to Sirius on the love seat, held his face in his hands.

What have I done? He thought anxiously to himself.

On the other side of the coffee table, Charlus paced back and forth in front of the room. James and Lily were sitting in an arm chair while Remus stood behind them leaning on the back of the chair. Dorea sat next to the fire, her long hair severely messed up from the many times she had run her hands through it since they arrived home.

Peter stood next to the fireplace, leaning up against the bookshelf. They had all come over to stay the weekend and we're now witness to the drama unfolding.

"He was surrounded by them! What was he supposed to do? So no?" James argued, not fully understanding the ramifications of what Harry had done.

"Yes!" Charlus yelled back. "We had a plan! This was not a part of the plan!"

"There were too many variables in that plan." Sirius calmly stated. "If we have someone on the inside, we can find the horcruxes easier. Harry doesn't know where they are right now. If he can gain their trust..." But Sirius didn't get to finish his sentence.

"Trust?" Charlus screamed "they have no trust in one another! Only punishment and fear!"

The knot in Harry's stomach tightened. He couldn't do this. Yes, he could control his mind but he would still be forced to commit unspeakable acts and be subject to the Dark Lord's punishment. Harry shuddered at the memory of Voldemort's cruciatus curse. Everyone around him was arguing, Charlus was the only one to truly understand the severity of the situation and he could not convince the others that this was a terrible idea. Their shouting was taking a toll on Harry and he attempted to shut their voices out. He felt as if the room was getting smaller, like he was being pulled in many different directions and was about to snap.

"Harry can do this!" Peter shouted.

"You heard what happened to you last time Peter!" Charlus rebutted. "You of all people should understand why he can't do this!"

"He's stronger than I am." Peter said, much quieter than before. "More powerful too, they won't break him..."

This was the final straw and Harry, did indeed, snap. Losing his self control he stood, "Power has nothing to do with it Peter! If it did, then you certainly would never have done what you did!"

"Harry.. I'm.. I'm weak, everyone knows it! What I did in your past...to my brothers.. That just proves how weak I am."

"Do you think you had a choice Peter? Joining the Death Eaters isn't just raising your right hand and taking the dark mark!" Harry was practically screaming now. "This is dark magic! Evil magic! It seeps into you soul and controls your mind, slowly chipping away at your conscience until it's gone and all that's left is an evil shell of your former self." Harry was slowly stalking angrily across the room towards Peter. The fire light sending shadows across his face and reflecting off of the visible scars that plagued his face, hands, and arms

He looked truly terrifying.

"I'm more powerful than you?" Harry continued "Bloody hell Peter! You became an animagus at fifteen! I've seen you escape a room with four wands pointed on you. For crying out loud Peter you single handedly brewed the potion, and preformed the ritual that brought Voldemort back to life! Don't tell me you aren't powerful!" He pointed his finger right at Peters chest

Peter looked equally confused and horrified.

"What do you think happened when you became James's secret keeper? That they tortured it out of you? That he read your mind? The charm doesn't work that way, the secret keeper must willingly give the secret! Tell me Peter would you ever willingly hand James over to be murdered?"

The tension in the room was palpable. Peter had turned as white a ghost at Harry's words.

"No! Never... I.." Peter stammered but Harry interupted.

"No! You wouldn't, but you did! Because that mark on your arm forced you to submit to your master! You killed James, framed Sirius, faked your death, and left Remus alone to mourn the loss of all of you! You killed Cedric! Amos Diggory's only son!" Lily was shocked by the revelation. James had told her that, in Harry's past, Peter joined the Death Eaters to try and protect them but it had back fired. She just wasn't aware of what all had happened.

Harry knew he should stop yelling at Peter, but he needed to get his point across. Peter was shaking his head in disbelief, he didn't want to believe he'd done these things.

"You did Peter! He told you to kill the spare and you shot down a seventeen year old boy without hesitation! You threw me back, into the headstone of Voldemort's father's grave and charmed the Angel to hold me in place while you preformed the ritual! Tell me Peter would you willingly do something like that?"

"No! I would never do anything like that!" Peter screamed.

"But you did! You were so completely lost in the dark magic that you didn't even think twice before doing as you were told!" Harry retorted, his eyes blazing with fear and sadness.

"You're lying!" Peter screamed, clearly panicked by the thought of what his future could have, would have, been.

"I was there Peter!" Harry shouted "you opened his father's casket right in front of me! Bone of the father, unknowingly given. Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken! You stuck you knife in me and ran it up my arm!" Harry extended his right arm, showing off the scar Peter had given him all those years ago.

Peter turned his head, unable to look at James's son. Harry grabbed Peter by the wrist and held up his hand. "Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed." Harry quoted as he held Peter's hand up in front of them both. "I watched you cut off your own hand to bring him back and then you thanked him for it!" Disgust clearly evident in his voice.

Peter closed his eyes and Harry released his hand. Everyone in the room now understood exactly what Harry would be subjected too, if he took Abraxas up on his offer.

"You weren't completely gone." Harry said softly. "When the snatchers found us... the day we were taken to Malfoy Manor. After Bellatrix carved up my arm, you took me back to the basement, but before you could lock us up I asked you why... Why you betrayed them." Harry gestured towards James, Lily and the others. "You told me that you didn't want to, but that you didn't have a choice. I gave you a choice, I told you that if you let us go, that you could come with us. Do you know what you said?"

Peter shook his head and Harry continued.

"You said Please... and that was the last word you ever spoke, the new hand that Voldemort had given you, wrapped around your throat." Harry paled at the memory of Peter's slow merciless death.

"I tried to stop it... I didn't have a wand, there was nothing I could do." Harry looked away from everyone and into the fire.

"Now do you understand how dangerous this is?" Charlus broke the silence after a moment.

"Yes! I do" Harry replied "and I am terrified! But we need someone on the inside."

"Harry, you don't have to do this." Dorea said tearfully

"Yes I do." Harry said, more confidently than he felt.

"Harry, they will break you. Force you to do despicable things. You will not come out of this unharmed." Charlus tried to reason. "It's not possible."

"It is possible, in my past, Dumbledore had a spy, but now that I've stopped... a certain death... from happening, this spy may not switch sides this time." Harry tried to explain.

"Who?" Remus asked.

Harry took a deep breath. "Severus."

Lily's eyes widened. "There's hope for him?"

Harry just nodded in response.

"It was my death that changed him wasn't it?" She asked

"Yes... It broke him, he was able to trick Voldemort and control the magic of the Dark Mark using occlumency. By shielding my mind, I can keep the Mark from overtaking me, but I'll have to act like I'm under its control. I... I have to do this."


End file.
